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EASTERN
BODY

WESTERN
MIND

Psychology and the Chakra
System as a Path to the Self

Anodea Judith

Praise For

EASTERN BODY, WESTERN MIND

"It's a rare book indeed that is immediately accessible and relevant to daily life and, at
the same time, well-researched and scholarly. Eastern Body, Western Mind is that kind
of special work. It is sure to become the classic text on the chakras and their relation to
Western psychologies. It provides a clear framework to wholeness and transformation
that makes a major contribution to the evolution of humankind."

— Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., author of Minding the Body, Mending the Mind and Inner

Peace for Busy People

"Eastern Body, Western Mind is the most well organized, readable description of the
deep order of manifestation of Supreme Consciousness within the human body-mind
ever written. This absolutely brilliant synthesis of the chakra system and the heart of
Western psychology should be studied regularly by every yoga teacher, bodyworker,
psychotherapist, healer, and spiritual seeker."

— John Friend, founder of Anusara yoga
"Fresh, accessible, and seamlessly cross-cultural, Eastern Body, Western Mind
creates the perfect melding of the Eastern chakra system and Western Jungian
psychology. One of the next tasks for humankind is to integrate these two different but
complementary worldviews, and Anodea Judith has taken a giant step in that direction."
— Leonard Shlain, author of Sex, Time, and Power and The Alphabet Versus the

Goddess

"A book of profound and practical compassion. Judith's ideas are as essential and
important as Freud's insights were a hundred years ago. She offers specific and varied
strategies to understand your ways of coping, so that you can let go of those that no
longer serve you and make better use of those that do."

— James Fadiman, Ph.D., author of Unlimit Your Life and The Other Side of Haight
"This very readable yet scholarly book provides a comprehensive picture of healthy
human development and the development of human consciousness. We are taken, step
by step, on a journey toward the integration of body, mind, and spirit. A groundbreaking
contribution."

— Susan Campbell, author of Getting Real and Truth in Dating
"Rather than presenting an esoteric borrowing from Indian culture, Judith employs the
metaphoric language of the chakra system within the context of modern psychology.
Her clear organization and numerous charts make browsing for subjects of personal
relevance a breeze.... The book provides a useful tool for contemplating our strengths,
weaknesses, and appropriate approaches to growth."

— Yoga Journal

"... sparkles with insight. Spiritual seeker, client, and therapist alike will find treasures
here."

— PanGaia magazine

EASTERN BODY

WESTERN MIND

Psychology and the Chakra System
as a Fath to the Self

REVISED

Anode a Judith

ft

aiNiuins

For information on the author's workshops, please contact:
Sacred Centers
708 Gravenstein Hwy N. #109, Sebastopol, CA 95472
www.sacredcenters.com
Copyright © 1 996, 2004 by Anodea Judith

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Celstial Arts, an imprint of the Crown Publishing

Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

www.crownpublishing.com

www.tenspeed.com

Celestial Arts and the Celestial Arts colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Judith, Anodea, 1952-

Eastern body, Western mind : psychology and the chakra system as a path to the self / Anodea Judith
Celestial Arts. — Rev. ed.
p. cm.

1. Chakras — Miscellanea. I. Title.
BF1442.C53J8 2004

150.19'8— dc22 2004010256
elSBN: 978-0-307-77793-5
v3.1

CONTENTS

Cover
Title Page
Copyright

ACKNOWLEGMENTS
PREFACE

INTRODUCTION: SACRED CENTERS OF THE SELF

Discovering the Rainbow Bridge
Wheels That Heal
The Human Biocomputer
Character Armor
The Seven Rights
The Seven Identities
Demons of the Chakras
Developmental Stages
Adult Development

CHAKRA ONE: RECLAIMING THE TEMPLE OF THE BODY

Shades of Red
Unfolding the Petals
Growing the Lotus
Traumas and Abuses
Character Structure
Excess and Deficiency
Restoring the Lotus
Conclusion

CHAKRA TWO: SWIMMING IN THE WATERS OF DIFFERENCE

Shades of Orange
Unfolding the Petals
Growing the Lotus
Traumas and Abuses
Character Structure
Excess and Deficiency
Restoring the Lotus
Conclusion

CHAKRA THREE: BURNING OUR WAY INTO POWER

Shades of Yellow
Unfolding the Petals
Growing the Lotus
Traumas and Abuses
Character Structure
Excess and Deficiency
Restoring the Lotus
Conclusion

CHAKRA FOUR: FINDING THE BALANCE IN LOVE

Shades of Green
Unfolding the Petals
Growing the Lotus
Traumas and Abuses
Character Structure
Excess and Deficiency
Restoring the Lotus
Conclusion

CHAKRA FIVE: VIBRATING INTO EXPRESSION

Shades of Blue
Unfolding the Petals
Growing the Lotus
Traumas and Abuses
Character Structure
Excess and Deficiency
Restoring the Lotus
Conclusion

CHAKRA SIX: SEEING OUR WAY THROUGH

Shades of Indigo
Unfolding the Petals

Growing the Lotus
Traumas and Abuses
Excess and Deficiency
Restoring the Lotus
Conclusion

CHAKRA SEVEN: OPENING TO THE MYSTERY OF HEAVEN

Shades of Violet

Unfolding the Thousand-Petaled Lotus
Growing the Lotus
Traumas and Abuses
Excess and Deficiency
Restoring the Lotus

CONCLUSION: RESTORATION OF THE SACRED

The Many Shades of the Rainbow
Putting It All Together
Kundalini Awakening

ENDNOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Other Books by This Author

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ris, the Greek Goddess of the Rainbow, was the first deity I ever encountered. It is to
Her that I owe my discovery of the chakras and the Rainbow Bridge. However, in my
journey across this bridge I have been supported by a great number of people — my
clients, students, teachers, friends, and family.

Of particular importance, I thank my immediate family who lived with me while I wrote
this book. My son, Alex Wayne, allowed me to tell stories about him in the text and
helped draw up the computer graphics. My husband, Richard Ely, gave me love,
support, and patient editing. Selene Vega, coauthor of The Sevenfold Journey and
coteacher of the Nine Month Chakra Intensive, helped develop this work over the
years, as well as giving me wonderful support, editing, and feedback. I would like to
thank Lisa Green for her feedback on child development, Jack Ingersoll for his lengthy
discussions on Jungian psychology, and Nancy Gnecco for her contributions to the
charts. I would also like to thank my agent, Peter Beren, for making this publication
possible, and David Hinds of Celestial Arts.

Most of all, I'd like to thank those who have dared to engage in the healing process with
me as your guide. From you I have learned the most. It has been a privilege to serve
you.

PREFACE TO THIS EDITION

Since this book was originally published in 1996, the chakra system has come of age
in the West. Yoga centers are growing exponentially, teaching asanas and meditations
that open the chakras. Theories of "energy healing" are influencing the practice of both
medicine and psychotherapy, creating a hunger for new models. Chakras now appear
on T-shirts, candles, and jewelry, in sitcom conversations and articles in Time
magazine. The idea that mind and body exist on a spiritual continuum has finally
entered the mainstream. The good news is that it makes the chakra system accessible
to more people as a template for transformation. The shadow side of this exposure is
that, at least in the West, any cultural meme that gets seized by the collective
consciousness runs the risk of trivialization, thus diluting its power.
At every workshop, lecture, or book signing, people come up to me asking whether I
have a simple way to "clear their chakras." Few of them understand what a chakra
actually is, fewer still have familiarity with the ancient Tantric yoga tradition from which
this system originates, and even fewer still are willing to delve into the depths of their
own psyches and actually do the work required to make lasting changes in their inner
and outer life. While some of the modern techniques of chakra energy work can bring
tangible shifts in the way we feel, it is my opinion that these changes are often short-
lived if we don't roll up our sleeves and do deeper work on the soul's journey of healing
and awakening.

It is to this challenge that I address this book. It will teach you an elegant system for
understanding your health and imbalances, yet one that is richly complex. You will not
find "one-size-fits-all" formulas that apply equally to all people or all situations. Instead,
you will learn universal principles that can be effectively applied with careful
consideration and understanding. You will learn, for example, that some of your chakras
may be too open, with poor discrimination and filters, while other chakras can get mired
in avoidance patterns and remain closed. You will learn how these unconscious defense
patterns create excessive and deficient coping strategies that over time throw your
system out of balance and alignment, affecting the body's health and your quality of life.
You will learn that these vital energy centers open sequentially during crucial stages of
childhood, and can be unwittingly shut down by well-meaning parents whose own
centers were compromised. You will learn about your upward and downward currents of
energy, and how each has a different purpose in the liberation and manifestation of your
life force. And you will learn about the work required to reclaim the true aliveness that is
your birthright.

The most frequent comment I've received from my readers about this book is that they
wonder how I could possibly have written so pointedly about their private life and
personal issues. This highlights how universal these ancient principles are. Yet, in a
rapidly changing world, we need to continually upgrade our operating systems and learn
new applications of these universal principles. Few people live in ashrams with leisure
for the contemplative life. Instead, most of us live fast-paced lives, full of complex
challenges. We meet these challenges through the veil of enormous emotional wounds
that compromise our aliveness. We live in a culture in which that compromise is taken
for granted. To heal this rift, many of us have been working on ourselves for decades,
undergoing the journey to heal ourselves and find our life's purpose, the journey of
individuation and awakening.

The chakra system is a map for that journey. With this map in hand, your journey can be
more direct, more profound, and more deliberate. This system maps onto the body
through the human nervous system, maps onto the psyche through developmental
stages of childhood, maps onto the spiritual quest through states of consciousness, and
transforms the culture through planes of external reality. The chakras are truly a set of

portals between the inner and outer worlds.

If the outer world is to be transformed, the process must begin within. If the inner world
is to be transformed, it must be understood in light of the outer forces that shaped it.
These realms are not separate, yet we lack a systematic means of tying them together.
The value of the chakra system is that as the inner and outer worlds connect, we
become aligned — spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically.
In the Western world, there are somatic therapies that connect mind and body, yet
ignore the spiritual aspects of our being. There are spiritually oriented psychologies that
connect psyche and spirit, yet ignore the body. And there are disciplines, such as yoga,
that connect spirit and body, yet fail to address the wounds of the psyche.
Through the lens of the chakra system, this book presents an integration of psychology,
spirituality, and physicality within one comprehensive system. It says mind, body, and
spirit are equally important facets of every one of us, yet comprise one unified entity. In
honoring the full spectrum of human aliveness, this book is a contribution toward the
restoration of your wondrously divine potential. With map in hand, may you enjoy the
journey.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

Eastern Body, Western Mind focuses on vital issues in therapy today: addiction,
codependence, physical and sexual abuse, family dynamics, character structures,
personal empowerment, feminism, male emancipation, sexuality, politics, and
spirituality. It integrates techniques from bioenergetics to visualization, depth
psychology to spiritual practice.

After working in the healing field for over two decades, I have seen far too much
suffering of the human soul. I have sat with my tissue, drying the tears of people deeply
wounded by the horrendous ignorance of emotionally crippled caretakers — people trying
to limp their way through a troubled world, filled with others as wounded as themselves.
I have seen how the healing process can overwhelm and frighten those engaged in this
heroic journey. Yet I have also witnessed the incredible transformations and hopes that
this journey brings to its travelers, as well as the transformation of the world around
them.

It is to this hope of transformation that I dedicate this work. As a guidebook for the
journey of awakening, it presents a systematic model for addressing the issues that
plague us. It is written for individuals engaged in their own healing process, as well as
for therapists, counselors, and body-workers who become guides along the way. It is
also addressed to parents who want to raise conscious and healthy children, and to
those who simply want to wake up and further their own evolution.
Eastern Body, Western Mind shows how to use the chakra system as a tool for
diagnosis and healing. My primary purpose is to present the system itself, as a lens
through which we can view the complex problems of the soul's evolution, both
individually and collectively. The system is presented through its major components, the
individual chakras, examining how they shape and are shaped by human behavior and
culture.

In presenting this material, I have woven together three basic threads of philosophical
thought:

The Enlightenment philosophies, whose movement is upward and beyond,
toward the mental and spiritual realms. They are derived primarily from Eastern
cultures and their focus on transcendence. They seek to escape the trials and
tribulations of the mundane world by ascending to higher planes of
consciousness that transcend suffering.

The embodiment philosophies, whose movement is down and in, toward the
realms of manifestation, soul, body, and engagement with the world around us.

They are reflected in the practice of somatic therapy, bioenergetics, and
earth-centered spirituality. Their focus is on immanence, or the presence of the
divine within. They seek to end suffering by engaging with the forces that cause
it.

The integrative philosophies, whose movement is toward integration of
opposites: mind and body, Heaven and Earth, spirit and matter, light and
shadow, male and female. For this thread, I have chosen to focus on the depth
psychology of Carl Gustav Jung, specifically, his understanding of the soul's
journey toward individuation. The goal of integrative philosophies is
transformation and wholeness.
The chakra system is a profound representation of the universe. Each of the seven
levels represents such major areas of human life that they could fill volumes all by
themselves. Issues of love and relationship, power and spirituality, emotion and instinct
all beg to be examined and understood. Sexuality, for example, is just one aspect of the
second chakra, and sexual abuse is just one aspect of sexuality. It cannot be the
purpose of this book to detail the complexities of any particular abuse, but to place each
one in the context of a larger system in which they can be understood energetically and
spiritually. From this context, you can orient your healing process. For further
information, please see the references listed at the end of the book.
I have wanted the book to be as user-friendly as possible. In today's fast-paced world, I
know that many people do not have time to read a book of this size from cover to cover.
Therefore, the text is divided by numerous subtitles and reference charts to make the
information easily accessible — you can read the parts that are pertinent to you and skim
the rest. Some sections are more clinically oriented, using language specific to
psychotherapy, while others are directed toward a general audience.
This work is definitely a Western approach to the chakras. It places modern
psychosocial issues within a spiritual context, based on the esoteric interpretations of
the chakras that can be found in Eastern texts. Rather than presenting an otherworldly
discipline borrowed from the cultures of the East, I have created a down-to-earth,
practical application for contemporary members of Western civilization. Yet the
inevitable result is a blending of East and West.

The chakra system describes the energetic structure through which we organize our life
force. By understanding this internal arrangement, we can understand our defenses and
needs, and learn how to restore balance. The chakra system is every bit as valid as any
psychological theory, and I feel, far more versatile — one that is capable of spanning
mind, body, and spirit. I invite you to explore it with me and thereby deepen your own
healing process.

NOTE. The personal stories related here are combinations of real people — sometimes
several people's stories overlap to make the best illustrations. All names and specific
details have been changed to protect anonymity. I give deep thanks to my clients,
students, and friends who have risked themselves in the service of transformation and
taught me so much about this material.

INTRODUCTION

Sacred Centers of the Self

DISCOVERING THE RAINBOW BRIDGE

Y

but trie
And his brother wil

ou are about to go on a journey through the many dimensions of your own Self. This

journey will take you through a transformation of consciousness — across a vital
bridge — connecting spirit and matter, Heaven and Earth, mind and body. As you

transform yourself, you transform the world.

You may grind their souls in the self-same mill
You may bind them heart and brow;

But the poet will follow the rainbow still,

will follow the plow.

JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY
This journey is a colorful one, as life itself is colorful. It offers an alternative to the drab,
gray mentality of the modern era, where color is limited to the realm of children. By
contrast, too many "grown-ups" live in dark, tailored suits, riding gray subways and
highways through black-and-white realities of grim choices and limited options.
Reclaiming the multidimensional diversity of the human experience is the task of this
journey — no less than a quest for our wholeness and the renewal of our collective spirit.
The seven colors of the rainbow represent an alternative to our binary black-and-white
consciousness, offering us a world of multiple opportunities. The rainbow expresses the
diversity of light as it moves from source to manifestation. Its seven colors represent
seven vibratory modalities of human existence, related to the seven chakras of Indian
yogic tradition — energy centers that exist within each one of us.
Yoga philosophy teaches us that the serpent goddess, Kundalini, represents the
evolutionary life force within each person. She awakens from her slumber in the earth to
dance her way through each chakra, reestablishing the rainbow as a metaphysical
bridge between matter and consciousness. Through this dance of transformation, the
rainbow becomes the axis mundi— the central axis of the world that runs through the
vertical core of each one of us. On our journey through life, the chakras are the wheels
along this axis that take the vehicle of the Self along our evolutionary quest, across the
Rainbow Bridge, to reclaim our divine nature once again.

This Rainbow Bridge can also span the cultures of East and West, as each has
something to learn from the other. The treasures of the East bring Westerners a vast
spiritual wealth. The elaborate practices of yoga, the abundance of Buddhist and Hindu
scriptures, and the rich imagery of Eastern deities bring Westerners new dimensions of
spiritual experience. Yet despite this spiritual wealth, there is a predominance of
material poverty in many of the Eastern countries, especially in India, where yoga and
the chakra system originated. By comparison, most Westerners live among material
wealth, but spiritual poverty. Greed and violence dominate our news, fear and
emptiness plague our youth, and mindless materialism consumes the world's resources.
I believe it is possible to have both material abundance and spiritual wealth. We can
embrace all the chakras at once, at last achieving some kind of personal and cultural
balance.

Crossing the Rainbow Bridge is a mythic metaphor for the evolution of consciousness.
To reclaim a myth is to put our personal work into a larger context — a context which
deepens the meaning of our individual struggle. To restore the Rainbow Bridge is to
reconnect to our own divinity, anchoring it in the world around us and healing the rifts

that so plague our world.

Mythologically, the rainbow has always been a sign of hope — a connection between
Heaven and Earth, a sign of harmony and peace. It was once believed that deities,
spirits, and mortals passed along its bands of color both during life and after, protecting
the indivisibility of sky and Earth. In Norse mythology, the Rainbow Bridge connected
humans to the gods, and provided the link to Valhalla, the celestial palace where the
gods had their dwelling.

The rainbow, as archetypal symbol, appears in many mythologies throughout the world.
In Hindu mythology, the goddess Maya created the world out of seven rainbow-hued
veils. In Egyptian myth, it was the seven stoles of Isis; in Christianity, the seven veils of
Salome; for the Babylonians, it was Ishtar's rainbow-jeweled necklace; and for the
Greeks, the winged Iris, who carried the gods' messages to humans on Earth.
From Celtic myth, the pot of gold at the rainbow's end represents a kind of Holy
Grail — the lost vessel of spiritual renewal and fulfillment. Carl Jung referred to gold as
the symbolic end product of inner alchemical transformation. Passage through the
chakras is an alchemical process of increasing refinement that unites light and shadow,
male and female, spirit and matter, all in the crucible of the body and psyche. The pot of
gold is indeed the elusive philosopher's stone that lures us into the heroic journey of
transformation.

The soul is greater than the hum of its parts.

DOUGLAS HOFSTADTER

In the Turkish language, the word for rainbow literally means "bridge." Ancient myths tell
us that as doomsday approaches, the Rainbow Bridge will be broken down, severing
forever the connection between Heaven and Earth. As we face an uncertain future in
the dawning of a new millennium, perhaps doomsday can be averted by reestablishing
the Rainbow Bridge once again through the medium of our own consciousness. Thus
the journey becomes a sacred quest — one that restores hope and connection, renewing
ourselves, and preserving the world.

WHEELS THAT HEAL

The chakra system is a seven-leveled philosophical model of the universe. Chakras
have come to the West through the tradition and practice of yoga. Yoga (which means
"yoke") is a discipline designed to yoke together the individual with the divine, using
mental and physical practices that join our mundane and spiritual lives. This goal is
achieved by passing through steps of ever-expanding states of consciousness. The
chakras represent these steps.

A chakra is a center of organization that receives, assimilates, and expresses life force
energy. The word chakra literally translates as "wheel" or "disk" and refers to a
spinning sphere of bioenergetic activity emanating from the major nerve ganglia
branching forward from the spinal column. There are seven of these wheels stacked in
a column of energy that spans from the base of the spine to the top of the head (see
figure 0.1). There are also minor chakras in the hands, feet, fingertips, and shoulders.
Literally, any vortex of activity could be called a chakra. It is the seven major chakras
that correlate with basic states of consciousness, and it is these that we will examine in
this book.

Whether the symbol of the circle appears in a primitive sun worship or modern religion,
in myths or in dreams, in the mandalas drawn by Tibetan monks, in the ground plan of
cities, or in the spherical concepts of early astronomers, it always points to the single
most vital aspect of life — its ultimate wholeness.

C. G.JUNG

The chakra system originated in India, more than four thousand years ago. Chakras
were referred to in the ancient literature of the Vedas, the later Upanishads, the Yoga

Sutras of Patanjali, and most thoroughly in the sixteenth century by an Indian yogi in a
text called the Sat-Chakra-NirupanaA In the 1920s, chakras were brought to the West
by Arthur Avalon with his book The Serpent Power.2 Today, they are a popular
concept linking areas of the body and psyche with associated metaphysical realms.
Chakras are not physical entities in and of themselves. Like feelings or ideas, they
cannot be held like a physical object, yet they have a strong effect upon the body as
they express the embodiment of spiritual energy on the physical plane. Chakra patterns
are programmed deep in the core of the mind-body interface and have a strong
relationship with our physical functioning. Just as the emotions can and do affect our
breathing, heart rate, and metabolism, the activities in the various chakras influence our
glandular processes, body shape, chronic physical ailments, thoughts, and behavior. By
using techniques such as yoga, breathing, bioenergetics, physical exercises,
meditation, and visualization, we can, in turn, influence our chakras, our health, and our
lives. This is one of the essential values of this system — that it maps onto both the body
and the mind, and can be accessed through either.

Thus the chakras are said to have a location, even though they do not exist in the
physical sense. Figure 0.1 shows the relative locations of the seven major chakras.
These locations may vary slightly from person to person, but remain consistent in their
overall relationship to one another.

While they cannot be seen or held as material entities, the chakras are evident in the
shape of our physical bodies, the patterns manifested in our lives, and the way we think,
feel, and handle situations that life presents us. Just as we see the wind through
movement of the leaves and branches, the chakras can be seen by what we create
around us.

Figure 0.1. Chakra Locations in the Body

Based on their location in the body, the chakras have become associated with various
states of consciousness, archetypal elements, and philosophical constructs. The lower
chakras, for example, which are physically closer to the earth, are related to the more
practical matters of our lives — survival, movement, action. They are ruled by physical
and social law. The upper chakras represent mental realms and work on a symbolic
level through words, images, and concepts. Each of the seven chakras has also come
to represent a major area of human psychological health, which can be briefly

summarized as follows: (1) survival, (2) sexuality, (3) power, (4) love, (5)
communication, (6) intuition, and (7) consciousness itself (see Figure 0.2).
Metaphorically, the chakras relate to the following archetypal elements: (1) earth, (2)
water, (3) fire, (4) air, (5) sound, (6) light, and (7) thought. (This is my own interpretation;
classic texts only list the five elements earth, water, fire, air, and ether.) These
elements, in turn, represent the universal principles of gravitation, polarity, combustion,
equilibrium, vibration, luminescence, and consciousness itself, respectively (see Figure
0.2). Understanding these formative principles and the essence of the associated
elements gives us a key to understanding the unique nature of each chakra. Earth is
solid and dense; water is formless and fluid; fire is radiating and transforming; air is soft
and spacious; sound is rhythmic pulsation; light is illuminating; while thought is the
medium of consciousness. Meditating on the elements gives us a profound sense of the
distinct flavor of each chakra.

BASIC ISSUES ELEMENTS

Thought

Consciousness

Light

Luminescence

Sound

Vibration

Air

Equilibrium

Fire

Combustion

Water

Poiarity

Earth

Gravitation

e Chakras

Together the chakras describe a kind of Jacob's ladder connecting the polarities of
Heaven and Earth, mind and body, spirit and matter. These polarities exist on a
continuum, with the chakras as incremental steps that are embodied within all life
processes. Each step upward moves from a heavy, well-defined vibrational state to a
higher, subtler, and freer form. Each step downward brings us into form and solidity.
As there are seven levels to the chakras and seven colors in the rainbow, the slowest
vibration of visible light, red, is associated with the base chakra, and the fastest and
shortest, violet, with the crown. Each of the other colors (orange, yellow, green, blue,
indigo) represent the steps between. 3 As we learn to open and heal the chakras within
us, we become the Rainbow Bridge — the living link between Heaven and Earth.

7
6
5

4

3
2
1

Cognition

Intuition

Communication

Love

Power

Sexuality

Survival

Figure 0.2. Basic Issues and Elements of t>

Each of the chakras' principles and attributes will be discussed in the following chapters.
The Table of Correspondences (Figure 0.3) groups some of the basic information for
you.

_JHE HUMAN BIQCQMPUTER

The word chakra literally means "disk." How fitting that in modern times, disks are the

common storage unit of programmed information. We can use this analogy and think of
chakras as floppy disks that contain vital programs. We have a survival program that
tells us when we need to eat, how many hours to sleep, and when to put on a sweater.
It contains details such as how much money we think we need, what we are willing to
do for that money, what constitutes a threat to our survival, and what makes us feel
secure. Likewise, we have programs for sexuality, power, love, and communication. In
this analogy, the seventh chakra can be thought of as the operating system. It
represents how we organize and interpret all our other programs.
In the computer world, technology is advancing so rapidly that programs written ten
years ago are sorely out of date today. So, too, with many of the programs we were
given as children. For example, old-fashioned gender roles are incompatible with
egalitarian relationships, and new models are evolving from the struggles of modern
couples. An alcoholic follows a program for recovery, and programs are necessary to
achieve weight loss or gain academic degrees. We all function by sets of programs,
which may or may not be conscious. The challenge before us is to find the appropriate
program and get the bugs out.

In this analogy the body is the hardware, our programming is the software, and the Self
is the user. However, we did not write all of these programs, and some of their language
is so archaic it is unintelligible. It is a heroic challenge, indeed, to identify our programs
and rewrite them all while continuing to live our lives, yet this is the task of healing. It
becomes even more difficult when we realize that each of our personal programs is part
of a larger cultural system over which we have had little or no control.
The chakra system is an evolutionary program and can be used to reprogram our lives.
If we can learn this on an individual level, perhaps we can apply the same methods to
our culture and environment.

There is another important aspect to this analogy that we often take for granted,
namely, the basic energy that makes it all work. The most elaborate computer with
megabytes of software is useless without electricity. What activates any and all of our
programs is the energy we pour into the system. Intricate internal flowcharts decide
which areas to energize and when. Hunger centers are activated when the stomach is
empty and sexual centers awaken with certain stimuli.

In order to understand a human being, we have to examine the flow of energy through
the system. We can think of this energy as excitement, charge, attention, awareness, or
simply the life force. (Some spiritual systems describe it as chi, ki, or prana.) Our
understanding of the chakras comes from a pattern analysis of energy flowing through a
person's body, behavior, and environment.

Sally's pattern might be to ignore her body and live entirely in her head. George's
pattern might be to push people away whenever they get close, while simultaneously
talking too much in an attempt to keep them engaged. Jane might move from one job to
another, never staying long enough to get a promotion, and might carry a poor self-
image because of her lack of success. These patterns can be seen as expressions of
the way chakra programs run our human biocomputers.

Figure 0.3. Table of Correspondences

CHAKIA ONE

CHAK(A TWO

CHAKRA THft£f

Sanskxjt NAME
(meaninc.)

XfuleJharo

(root)

Svadhutiutm
[sweetness)

Af.r'jir-i.r.j
[lustrous gem)

Location

Liiic of spine,
coccygeal pkxvs

Abdomen, genital*,
low back, hips

Solar plexus

CENTRAL ISS.UE

Survival

Sexuality, emotions

Power, will

OMENTA NOW

TO SClf

Self-preservation

Self-gratification

Selt-detimtion

< m lAIA

Stability, grounding,
phymjl hrJlh.
prosperity, mm

Fluidtry. pleasure,
healthy sexuality,
feeling

Vitality, spontaneity.

strength of will,
purpose, self-esteem

RjtiHTS

To be here, to have

To feci, to want

. i

To«l

DmUtrMlNTAI
STAGE

.

Womb to 12 month*

6 months to 2 years

— . ■

3 8 months to A yean

IlJt.NTlflf

I'hyskj] identity

,

Emotional identity

Ego identity

DfMON

Fear

Guilt

Shame

ElEWNT

Earth

Water

Fire

Excessive

I HASJiCTEAISTlCS

llcaViflcU. sluggish,
monotony, obesity,

hoarding. materialism,

gfeed

Overly emotional,
poor boundj.no.
sex addiction,
obsessive attachments

Dominating, controlling,
aggreuive , scattered,
eortiundy jcuvc-

Demlient

OlARjUrTEAISTICS

Fearful ,
undisciplined,
rodtrii, underweight,
ipieey

Frigid, impotent,
npd, emotionally
numb, fearful of
pleasure

Wc-ilc will, poar
self-esteem, passive,
duppsh, fearful

CHAKflA fOUR

CHAKftA f :V£

CHAKtA SIX

CHAM A SEVEN

Anahata
(ututruck)

(purification)

Ajna
(to perceive)

Sahasrara
(thousandfold)

Hclrt inci

Throat

Urow

Top of head,
cerebral cortex

Love, relationships

Communication

Intuition,
imagination

Awareness

Self-acceptance

Self-expression

Self-Trflection

Self- knowledge

Ualance. companion.
Self-acceptance r
^ihkI relationship*

Clear

communication,

resonance

Psychic perception,
accurate
interpretation,
imagination,
clear sec i j i

Wiulom. knowledge.

consciousne-«,
spirittial connection

To love md be loved

To speak and
to be heard

To see

T" know

4 to 7 yean

7 to 12 years

Adolescence

Throughout life

Social identity

Creative identity

Archetypal identity

Universal identity

Gnct

Lin

Illusion

Attachment

A;r

Sound

Light

Thought

Codependen cy,
poor boundaries,
possessive, jealous

Excessive talking,
inability to listen,
stuttering

Headaches,
nightmares,

hallucinations,
delusions, difficulty

concentrating

Overly intellectual,
spiritual addiction,

confusion.

dissociation

Shy, lonely, isolated,
lack of empathy,
bitter, critical

Fear of speaki ng,
poor rhythm,
aphasia

Poor memory,
poor vision,
unimaginative,
denial

Learning difficulties,
spiritual skepticism,

limited beliefs,
inatenalum, apathy

In our spirituality, we reach for consciousness, awareness, and the highest values; in
our soulfulness, we endure the most pleasurable and exhausting of human experiences
and emotions. These two directions make up the fundamental pulse of human life, and
to an extent, they have an attraction for each other.

THOMAS MOORE

It is quite common to have a perfectly good program and not know how to activate it.
People with weight problems often know exactly what they should and should not eat or
how they should exercise. Yet getting such programs activated is another question
entirely. Activation requires a charge of energy moving through the psychic currents of
the body.

In order to run any of our programs, we have to activate our energy currents (see
Figure 0.4). Human bodies are taller than they are wide, so our major energy pathways
run vertically while subtler currents run in other directions. This leaves us with two
essential poles: the earth-centered pole, which we contact through our bodies, and the
pole of consciousness, which we experience through our minds. Between these poles

runs a dynamic flow of energy that we experience as our life force.
When energetic contact is made through the body, it is called grounding. Grounding
comes from the solid contact we make with the earth, especially through our feet and
legs. It is rooted in sensation, feeling, action, and the solidity of the material world.
Grounding provides a connection that makes us feel safe, alive, centered in ourselves,
and rooted in our environment.

Consciousness, on the other hand, comes through that elusive entity we call the mind. It
is our inner understanding, our memory, our dreams and beliefs. It also organizes our
sensate information. When consciousness is detached from the body, it is wide and
vague, dreamy and empty, but capable of great journeys. When it is connected to our
body, then we have a dynamic energy flow throughout our entire being. In this way, the
spiritual realm becomes embodied, making it tangible and effective. In effect, we have
plugged in the system, just as we plug in our radio, so we can tune in to various
frequencies. The chakras then become like channels, receiving and broadcasting at
different frequencies.

Moves toward Form ,
Density, Boundaries,
Contraction, and
Individuality

Pull of Sdnt
and Body

Pull of Mind
and Spirit

Moves toward
Freedom, Expansion,
Abstraction, and
Universality

Figure 0.4. Energetic Currents
Soul and spirit are expressions of these polarities. In my use of these terms, I see soul
as tending to coalesce toward the body, leaning toward form, attachment, and feeling,
whereas spirit tends to move toward freedom and expanded consciousness. Soul is the
individual expression of spirit, and spirit is the universal expression of soul. They each
connect and are enhanced by the other. (This discussion is picked up again in the
chakra seven chapter.)
Lberationanp Manifestation

Liberation is the path of transcendence. Manifestation is the path of immanence. Be
lead to the same place: the divine.
The seven vortices of the chakras are created by the combination of these two active

3oth

principles: consciousness and matter. We can think of the flow of consciousness as
entering through the crown chakra and moving downward through the body. Since the
chakras represent elements that become increasingly dense as they descend (from
thought down to earth), I call this downward flow of energy the current of manifestation.
When we take thoughts and turn them into visualizations, then words, and finally into
form, we are engaged in the process of manifesting. Only through embodiment can
consciousness manifest. This means that the energy current must be run through the
body/hardware to activate the necessary programs.

The upward current, moving from dense earth to ethereal consciousness, is the current
of liberation. As we move incrementally upward through the chakras, we become less
restricted. Water is less defined than earth; thoughts are less specific than words or
pictures. Historically, the chakras were thought of as a path to liberation — a path where
one is freed from the restrictions of the material world.

It is a basic premise in this work that a human being needs a balance between both of
these currents in order to be whole. If we cannot liberate, we cannot change, grow, or
expand. We become like automatons, unconsciously stuck in monotonous routines, our
consciousness lulled to sleep from boredom. By contrast, without the current of
manifestation we become aimless and empty — dreamers flying into vast realms but
unable to land, full of ideas but unable to make commitments or completions. When we
combine both currents, we have the mating of cosmic polarities known as the hieros
gamos, or sacred marriage. This union of opposites creates limitless possibilities. It is
the metaphoric source of conception— a word that implies both the birth of an idea and
the beginning of life.

Unfortunately, both currents are affected by negative experiences. Physical pain,
childhood traumas, social programming, and oppressive environments or activities all
cut us off from our ground, and hence from the liberating current that originates at the
base. Our culture, so proud of its mind-over-matter philosophy, cuts us off from our
bodily experience and from the earth itself. In this severance, our sexuality is negated,
our senses assaulted, our environment abused, and our power manipulated. Our
ground is our form, and without it we lose our individuality.
For the archetype, as Jung conceived it, is a precondition and coexistent of life
manifestations not only reach upward to the spiritual heights of religion, art, a
physics, but also down into the dark realms of organic and inorganic matter.
At the other end of the pole, misinformation and indoctrination invalidate our
consciousness. The child who is told he did not see what he just saw or could not have
felt what he was feeling learns to doubt his own awareness. Instincts and memories
may become disconnected from the body. This can produce phobias and compulsive
activity, where behavior does not necessarily match the intentions of the conscious
mind.

Fortunately, information and experience are stored in both physical and mental states.
When one side is cut off, the other side can often be accessed. Our bodies can recover
memories our minds have forgotten, as when incest memories appear to people during
bodywork or sexual activity. Bringing consciousness into our ground activates various
memories and experiences that reveal the lies and misunderstandings blocked from
memory and deadening our consciousness.

Likewise, sensation can return to the body when attention is focused on certain mental
material — the elements of a dream, characters in a novel, or images in a picture. Often
when a client or friend talks about a vital issue, they will experience a streaming of
energy in their body as a part previously deadened comes to life. Both lead to profound
insight.

Integration of mind, body, and energy makes healing possible. It is not enough to
merely understand without action or to merely move energy without understanding. It is

the integration of these two currents that creates the changes we seek in our lives.
Taking and giving are the common principles of all life. Both are essential factors in
open systems, in connection with the world, and in one's personal evolution. If they are

either overwhelmed or empty and can

Reception and Expression

There are also two horizontal currents flowing into and out of each chakra — the current
of reception and the current of expression. We mix our two vertical currents together in
order to express ourselves at different chakra levels. For example, the speech I express
through my throat chakra is a mixture of my thoughts, my will, and my breath. My love is
a mixture of feelings and understanding. Likewise, what we receive through these
horizontal currents enters the system and travels up and down between the chakras.
For instance, an insight that I receive may release something in my body or change my
thinking.

When a chakra is blocked, reception and expression become distorted. If we think of the
chakras as analogous to holes in a flute, then you can see how we need to be able to
open and close each one in order to play a full range. How to make this a reality is the
subject of this book.
Chakra Blockage

A block develops from equal and opposing forces meeting on a particular plane. We
cannot merely eliminate one or the other force. They must be integrated.
We have all experienced times when the free flow of our energy seems blocked.
Habitual blocks may fall into categories that relate to chakra function. For instance, if
communication is difficult for us, we have a block in the fifth chakra. If we live in fear and
submission, we could say our power chakra is blocked. If our physical health or
personal finances are in constant crisis, then we have a block in the first chakra.
What blocks a chakra? Childhood traumas, cultural conditioning, limited belief systems,
restrictive or exhausting habits, physical and emotional injuries, or even just lack of
attention all contribute to chakra blockage. Difficulties abound in life, and for each one,
we develop a coping strategy. When difficulties persist, these coping strategies become
chronic patterns, anchored in the body and psyche as defense structures.
Eventually these defenses create holding patterns in our musculature that restrict the
free flow of energy, even when real threats cease to exist. This chronic tension is known
as body armor. It effects our posture, breathing, metabolism, and our emotional states,
as well as our perceptions, interpretations, and belief systems. Obviously, since the
body-mind system is so affected, we see manifestations in our relationships, work,
creativity, and belief systems — all of which tend to perpetuate the pattern,
ithout entering and leaving there is no development; without ascending a
ing, no transformation, absorption, and storing.

NEICHING

Like a rock in a streambed that collects sticks and leaves, a block of any significant
degree gains severity over time. What begins as a small fear grows into a full-blown
phobia, severely limiting one's freedom. Habitual anger may alienate a person from his
or her friends, and that isolation may produce depression and more anger. Clinging in
relationships creates abandonment, which increases one's tendency to hold on.
Furthermore, any block in a specific chakra affects the flow of the four basic currents.
We may be unable to get our liberating current "off the ground," finding ourselves
continually thrown back to survival issues. Or we may be unable to fully ground our
manifesting current, and remain lost in a flood of ideas, unable to make connections in
the real world. If we are unable to receive a particular kind of energy (like love or new
information), then the chakra atrophies and becomes further limited in its functioning. If
we are unable to express energy, we stagnate and become a closed system.

In any of these cases, we are incomplete or unbalanced in our experience of life. For

this reason, it is important to recognize the blocks we carry, find ways to understand

their source and meaning, and develop tools to heal them.

Unblocking a chakra requires addressing the problem on multiple levels.

Understand the dynamics of that particular chakra. This means knowing the
chakra system well enough to understand both the nature of each chakra and its
function in the system as a whole. This way we know what the chakra is trying to
accomplish, and how it behaves in its optimal functioning.
Examine the personal history related to that chakra 's issues. Each chakra has a
developmental stage, with traumas and abuses that affect its functioning.
Understanding your programming from each particular stage gives vital
information about the nature of the block.

Apply exercises and techniques. As the chakras are physically embodied, there
are specific physical exercises designed to open particular parts of the body.
There are also meditations, real-world tasks, and visualization techniques to help
influence change in a chakra.

Balance excess and deficiency. If a chakra is blocked by chronic holding, we
learn to let go. If it is blocked by perpetual avoidance, we learn to focus on that
area in both our bodies and our lives.
Not all blocks are the same, however, even in the same chakra. Different blocks require
different kinds of healing. The discussion below makes an important distinction between
two basic kinds of chakra imbalances. The chapters ahead look closely at what causes
blocks in specific areas, and analyzes the nature of their different manifestations.

ExC£88ANP DeFTOBCY

So many of life's problems stem from too much or too little of something. We spend our
lives searching for balance.

The way an individual copes with stress, negative experiences, or trauma usually falls
into one of two categories: increasing one's energy and attention in order to fight the
stress, or decreasing it in order to withdraw from the situation. This results in an
excessive or deficient coping strategy. You can tell which way a person has decided
to go by looking at their body and examining their habits. Is their body well-toned to the
point of chronic tension? Do they worry every point excessively? Are they compulsive
about details, overly organized? If so, they are generally overbound or excessive. By
contrast, if their pattern is to withdraw from situations, to be vague, unreliable, or overly
changeable, with a body that is undertoned, loose, or pasty, then they are likely to be
under-bound or deficient. The somatic therapist Stanley Keleman describes it this way:
In an overbound response the membranes of the structure thicken or stiffen in such a
way that the environment cannot be penetrated either from outside-in or inside-out.
Underbounded structures involve membranes that become unglued; there is porosity in
which the world invades the person or he leaks out into the world.4
We can also view this as a pattern of avoidance or overcompensation. Avoidance leads
to chakra deficiency and overcompensation leads to chakra excess. A bully who
compensates for insecurity by dominating others exhibits an excessive third chakra. A
frightened person who talks constantly would have an excessive fifth chakra. A densely
overweight person may have an excessive first chakra, using body weight to feel
protected and grounded. Excessive chakras overcompensate for loss or damage by
focusing excessively on that issue — usually in a dysfunctional way that fails to heal the
loss.

An avoidant response in a particular area occurs when one does not have enough
development to fully function on that level, so they avoid situations that might engage
that area. Someone who has had early physical trauma may withdraw from their body
and have trouble dealing with the physical world. A person who feels powerless will

make every effort to avoid conflict. Someone who grew up in isolation and neglect may
not have learned how to create relationships and will close down their heart chakra and
withdraw socially.

An excessive chakra is too cluttered to be functionally useful. Like a traffic jam, the
chakra is blocked by overcrowding, and the energy becomes dense and stagnant. A
deficient chakra restricts energy and remains cramped, empty, and useless.
As we develop through life we are likely to become excessive in some areas and
deficient in others. If a person is deficient in their first chakra, it is likely they will be
excessive in their upper chakras. If they are excessively attached to power over others,
they will have trouble in relationships. It is even possible to exhibit both deficient and
excessive patterns in the same chakra. For example, someone who is highly emotional
but sexually frigid exhibits both excess and deficiency in the second chakra.
Excessive and deficient chakras do, however, have some things in common. They are
both a result of coping strategies designed to deal with stress, trauma, or unpleasant
circumstances. They both restrict the flow of energy through the system, and block the
complete expression of both the liberating and manifesting currents. Eventually, they
both result in dysfunctional behavior and health problems.

Healing these imbalances is theoretically very simple. An excessive chakra needs to
discharge energy, and a deficient chakra needs to receive energy. However, it is difficult
to open a chakra which has been closed for forty years, or to get an excessive person to
let go. In addition, there are many subtleties that create exceptions to the above rule.
For instance, if someone talks too much as a way of discharging, it may not help to
encourage them to talk more. Instead, they need to strengthen an underlying deficiency,
such as poor grounding or emotional numbness. In this way, an excessive chakra can
feed a deficient one. Someone who is a strong visualizer can use that same strength to
imagine (and create) a healthier body. In strengthening a deficient chakra, it may also
be necessary to create support by strengthening a chakra below it. Our sense of power
(third chakra) increases when we are grounded (first chakra). Good relationships
(chakra four) require emotional sensitivity (chakra two). These subtleties emerge as one
works with the system over time.

The beauty of the chakra system lies in its multidimensionality. These imbalances can
be approached verbally through discussion, physically through work with the body and
movement, spiritually through meditation, emotionally through exploration of feelings,
visually through images, aurally through sounds, and actualized through outer-world
tasks that strengthen certain areas of our lives.

CHARACTER ARMOR

Character provides a meeting place for psyche and soma.... Character represents a
practice of self-care, an ongoing hasty, rigid solution imposed over our instability to
maintain an intact sense of self.

JOHN CONGER

As excess and deficiency become part of our chronic holding patterns, they can

become character armor. This bio-energetic term describes types of coping strategies
and their chronic holding patterns locked in the posture and tissues of the body.
Character armor typically develops from difficulties experienced during developmental
stages of life. Our ways of coping become defenses that get "hardwired" into the system
as it develops, beyond conscious awareness. They are not what we decide to do, but
rather are like default programs that run automatically.

Character structure describes overall patterns of armoring in the body. Alexander
Lowen describes six basic character structures, each with distinctive characteristics,
based on the pioneering work of Wilhelm Reich. 5 Most people exhibit at least one of
these six patterns, with shades and overtones of the other structures. For instance, we

may work through one layer of a character structure only to find another one
underneath, or sometimes a structure becomes activated by life situations, such as loss
of a loved one activating our "oral" issues or the demands of graduate school activating
our need to achieve. Understanding character armor is very useful in working with the
interface between body and mind, and correlates directly with the distribution of energy
through the chakras.

Lowen has given the six character structures specific names, some of which make them
seem quite pathological. I believe that these character structures are common to us all
and for this reason I prefer to use names that are less demeaning. They are described
briefly here, using both names, with more detailed discussion in their appropriate
chapters.

The Schizoid/Creative. Lowen named this structure Schizoid because of its characteristic
split between mind and body that results from first chakra alienation. People with this
structure are highly creative and intelligent, with upper chakras that are overdeveloped.
Their issues center around the right to exist, so this structure is discussed in the first
chakra chapter.

Character is the shell that energy leaves behind, as such it provides a house; but the
shell, as we grow, becomes too small.

JOHN CONGER

The Oral/Lover. The Oral structure is discussed in the second chakra chapter as it
results from deprivation in the nurturing/nourishment stage of dependency related to
chakras one and two. Since Oral types are strongly oriented toward emotional merging
and giving, they are also referred to as Lovers.

The Masochist/Endurer. The Masochist structure is fixated at chakra three with energy
bound at the will. Robbed of their autonomy, masochists tend to hold everything inside
in a conflicting pattern of pleasing and resisting, turning their blocked energy inward
against the Self. They are strong and loyal, and can endure difficulty well, so they are
more positively referred to as the Endurer structure.

The Rigid/Achiever. Wounded at the heart by lack of approval, this type tends to focus
their energy on achievement. They are highly functional but often afraid of relationships,
commitment, and feelings of intimacy. The Achiever structure is discussed in the
chapter on chakra four.

The Hysteric This structure is a variation on the Rigid/Achiever and tends to occur
more often in women, who have more cultural permission to be emotional. The wounds
and patterns are similar to the Achiever, but where the emotions are initially held back,
they later erupt with an intensity that gives this structure its name.
The Psychopath/Challenger-Defender. The Psychopathic structure is also
developmentally related to the third chakra, but the result is excessive rather than
deficient. This type is oriented toward power-over and is also called the Challenger-
Defender, as they defend the meek and challenge the strong. Since their holding
pattern brings energy upward in the body, especially to the neck and shoulders, I
discuss the Challenger in the fifth chakra chapter.

You can see pictures of the different body types in Figure 0.5. A chart of their
characteristics appears in Figure 0.6 for easy reference. Other charts follow in the
more detailed discussions that show their relationship to the excess and deficiency
patterns of all seven chakras.

Figure 0.5. Types of Body Armor

LOWE NTS TEtAM

SCHIZOID

ORAL

Alternate terms

Creative

Lover

A..h or

DEPRIVATION

Utero to 6 months

6 month* to 2Vi yean

Holding pattern

Holding together

Holding on
(c)ingmg)

Fear

Falling apart,
going crazy

Abandonment,
rejection

Doubts

tijgm to exist

Right to have

ILLUSION

My mind is
my body.

] tan i do 11
alone- Love will
solve everythjng-

Parent

Angry. (lightened

Depriving

Personality
symptoms

Locks Kmc of
self

Depressed, needy.

Eves

Vacant, fixed,
scared

Heading,

nnnnv dos-

Posftivi

AM*lt'TS

Highly irrtinvc

Loving

Body stews

Tcrwon in joints,
corweritred. jumpy

Sunken chest,
too tat or chin,
pJc, soft

Chakras most

Deficient 1st

Ei K.c citl Vc
excessive 4th

MMOCHIST

t!GlD

mCHOrATHlC

Endure r

Achiever

Challenger-Defender

IVato 3 yean

SVi to S years

2Vi to 4 years.

Holding in

Holding back

Holding up

Humiliation,
exposure

Surrender
(IO feelings]

Submission

Right to id

Right to want,
right to feel

T] ^ „t, , # L v

rvigni to t>c rree,
right to love

I'm trying to
please you.

Performance is
everything.

It's all a matter
of will

I intrusive,
authoritarian

Sexually rejecting,
cold

One parent veduCTtve,

one .LiJ.1 1 1 ■ "i n [ .l r ! j r i

Feels inicls.
moody

Agrwsive. proud,
competitive

Power hungry,
obstinate, contrary

Suffering,
confuted

Sparkling bright,

Compelling

Study. patient.

Good achiever,
highly functional

Keep their heads,

k iriil IjO i. J r k ! i' lv3\ i

Compressed,,

wWldtighdy,
jerky movement

High head,

active pel vn,
blocked middle

Attractive,
upwardly displaced,
loose pelvis

Blocked 3rd

Deficient 4th

Excessive 3rd.
strone 5th

7
6
5
4

3
2
1

To Kno w

To Sivi-:

To Se'hak

To Love

To Act

To Feel

To Be Here

Figure 0.7. The Seven Rights

_JHE SEVEN RIGHTS

The quickest way to minimize the divine within is to interfere with its basic rights.

Each one of the chakras reflects a basic, inalienable right, as listed below and in

Figure 0.7. Loss of these rights blocks the chakra. Reclaiming these rights is a
necessary part of healing the chakra.

Chakra ONE'.The right to be here. To find solidity in the first chakra, we must have an
instinctual sense of our right to exist. In my workshops I find that a large majority of
people have trouble with this right, as basic as it may seem. Without the right to be
here, few other rights can be reclaimed. Do we have the right to take up space? Do we
have the right to establish individuality? Do we have the right to take care of ourselves?
The right to be here is the foundation of our survival and security.
A corollary to this right is the right to have, especially to have what we need to survive. I
may have grasped my right to be here, but still have trouble allowing myself to have
such things as time to myself, pleasure, money, possessions, love, or praise. Not being
able to have something is like owning a bookcase without shelves. If there is no place in
the system in which to store things, and no effective process for obtaining them, then
we find ourselves in a constant state of deprivation — even when help is offered.
An unwanted child doubts his or her right to be here, and may have difficulty obtaining
necessities later in life. When we are denied food, clothing, shelter, warmth, medical
care, or a healthy environment, our right to have has been curtailed. Consequently, we
may question that right many times in life. The right to have underlies the ability to
contain, hold, keep, and manifest — all aspects of a healthy first chakra.
Chakra Two:777e right to feel. A culture that frowns upon emotional expression or
considers sensitivity a weakness infringes upon our basic right to feel. "You have no
right to be angry." "How can you express your emotions like that? You should be

ashamed of yourself!" "Boys don't cry." These kinds of injunctions infringe upon our right
to feel. Feeling is the way we obtain important information about our well-being. When
the right to feel is impaired, we become out of touch with ourselves, numb, and
disconnected. A corollary of this right is the right to want, since if we cannot feel, it is
very difficult to know what we want. Our right to enjoy healthy sexuality is intimately
connected with our right to feel.

Chakra Three: The right to act. Cultures with narrowly defined behavior patterns impair
the right to act through fear of punishment and the enforcement of blind obedience.
Most people follow in the footsteps of others, afraid to innovate, afraid to be free. When
the right to act is restricted, will and spontaneity go with it and our vitality decreases.
This does not imply that the third chakra profits by senseless or whimsical acts, but that
we do need freedom to develop our inner authority. A corollary to this right is the right
to be free.

Chakra FouRiTfte right to love and be loved. In a family this can be damaged by any
dysfunction in the parents' ability to love and care for their child. Culturally, the damage
appears in judgmental attitudes toward men loving men and women loving women. The
right to love is further damaged by racial strife, cultural prejudice, war, or anything that
forces enmity between groups as well as by poor self-esteem, broken will, and inability
to feel or communicate. As the central chakra in a system of seven, the right to love is
harmed when any of the other rights are lost or damaged.

Chakra FwezThe right to speak and hear truth. This right is damaged when we are not
allowed to speak truthfully in our family. "Don't talk to me like that, young man!" "We
don't discuss that subject in this family." This includes not being heard when we do
speak, keeping family secrets, and not being spoken to honestly. When our parents,
culture, or government lie to us, there is abuse of this right. Learning clear
communication is essential to reclaiming this right.

Chakra SociThe right to see. This right is damaged when we are told that what we
perceive is not real, when things are deliberately hidden or denied (such as parental
drinking), or when the breadth of our vision is discounted. When children see things that
are beyond the scope of their understanding, or when angry or frightening scenes occur
frequently, children diminish their own ability to see. This may affect both physical vision
and subtler psychic perceptions.

Chakra Seven: The right to know. This includes the right to accurate information, the
right to truth, the right to knowledge, and the right to simply know what's going on.
Certainly education is an important part of knowledge. Equally important are one's
spiritual rights — the right to connect with the divine in whatever way we find most
appropriate. To force on another a spiritual dogma infringes upon our seventh chakra
personal and spiritual rights. To deny information and education is to close down the
natural questing of the seventh chakra.

15
a
o

I

Universal Identity

Archetypal Identity
(self-reflection)

Creative Identity
(self-expressictt)

Social Identity
(self-acceptance)

Ego Identity
(self-definition)

Emotional Identity
(self-gratificathtt)

Physical Identity

(self-preservation)

Figure 0.8. Identities

THE SEVEN IDBOTTIES

Identity is a constantly changing and expanding manifestation of spirit. Without it, our

If our rights remain intact, or if we have managed to reclaim them, then we have a good

chance at embracing our seven basic chakra identities, each of which builds upon the
one below in an ever-expanding pattern of larger systems. Before listing the identities, it
is worthwhile to reflect on the concept of identity itself, for it is a slippery but important
concept in both psychology and spirituality.

Identity gives us meaning. We are constantly in search of meaning, for it tells us how to
operate. By identifying rain clouds, we know to roll up the windows in the car. If we are
ill or out of sorts, we want to identify the cause.

Each of the chakras is associated with a particular identity that emerges
developmentally as we mature through life. Each identity contains within it the identities
of the previous stages. Expanding our sense of identity is one of the keys to expanding
our mode of consciousness from one chakra to the next.

The identities can be seen as metaphoric layers of clothing, as ways to cover the
essential soul underneath. It is not a problem to have clothing — we need different outfits
for different occasions, from jeans to tuxedos to sexy lingerie. It is a problem if we think
the clothing is who we actually are, and never remove it.

When we are so immersed in these identities that we confuse them with the underlying
Self, then we have gotten stuck at a particular level. We have confused the clothing for
the body itself — unwilling to remove it, scared to expose the nakedness underneath. If,
on the other hand, we cannot identify at all with a level, then we know we have some
work to do there. Job hunting in dirty jeans or gardening in formal wear is
inappropriate — if that is all we can do, we are severely limited.

The chakra identities (see Figure 0.8) can be positive or negative, liberating or
imprisoning. They are simultaneously real and false. They are real in that they are real
parts, yet they are false because they are not the whole.

Chakra One: Our first identity level is known as the physical identity, and its job is self-
preservation. Here we learn to identify with the body — when my body is hungry, / am
hungry, when it hurts, / hurt. The body cloaks the invisible soul, and reveals its shape
and expression. When we identify with the body, we identify with the soul's expression
in physical form, as well as its physical qualities of male, female, young, old, fat, thin,
healthy, or sick.

Physical identification is necessary for dealing with the physical world. If I don't realize
that I cannot lift one hundred pounds of paper in a carton, I can seriously hurt my back.
If I don't recognize when I'm hungry or need to rest, I can seriously compromise my
health over time. To go without this identity is to be dissociated from the body and
disconnected from the physical world.

Chakra Two: Beneath the surface of the body churn the emotions. The emotions are the
clothing of our feelings. When we experience a strong emotion, we feel our aliveness
and often identify with the feeling involved. Even our language makes this identification:
I am angry, I am scared. (Other languages say, I have fear or anger.) This is the
identity that says, / feel therefore I am, and whatever I feel is what I am. Some people
identify their main sense of self in this way.

The second chakra, then, is our emotional identity, and its job is self-gratification.
Emotion emerges from our physical identity and yet brings in an added dimension. We
have to feel our bodies in order to feel our emotions and learn to interpret their
messages. Emotional identity expands the experience of the body and gives it
dimension and texture, connecting us to the flow of the world.

Chakra Three: In the third chakra, we identify with our will, behavior, and our actions.
This is where we realize that we are a separate entity with the power to choose our own
actions and consequences. This is the ego identity, oriented towards self-definition.6
This type of identification says, "I am what I do." When we do something right or achieve
something difficult, we feel good about ourselves. When we make mistakes or fail, then
we think we're bad. We think that what we do is a statement of who we are. Ego identity
emerges from physical and emotional identity and can be thought of as the inner
executive, as it executes our intentions. This is the identity most often in charge. But we
have to remember — it is only a middle manager.

Chakra Four: In the fourth chakra, we create a social identity, also known as the
persona. The persona is the personality created to interact with others — it is the part of
ourselves that the ego allows to rise above the surface, separated off from the shadow.
Our social identity may be the compulsive helper, the seductive lover, the pleaser, or
the entertainer. In our families we may take on the role of the lost child, the hero, the
good girl, or the rebel. Initially, our self-concept is based on how others react to
us — whether we are popular or an outcast, admired or criticized, loved or
rejected — identifying ourselves primarily through our relationships. As we mature, the
identity shifts to include how we perceive our role of service to others, or how we have
learned to give and embrace a world beyond our ego-oriented self. This becomes our
basis for self-acceptance.

The social identity has the ego as its base, yet continually expands beyond the realm of
self-centered needs to embrace an awareness of others. As I transcend my ego identity
to care more about others, my social identity emerges. Yet, how I present myself to
others depends a great deal on underlying ego strength.

The most basic hypothesis about the human psyche ... is that of a pattern of wholeness
that can only be described symbolically.

EDWARD WHITMONT

Chakra Five: The fifth chakra is the center of our creative identity. Here we identify with
our self-expression — what we say and produce. Initially, we identify with our word
through the commitments we make. I have committed myself in marriage and by that
commitment I am a wife. I have given my word to write a book, and in that commitment I
am a writer. In this identity, we take responsibility for what we say by embodying it in our
actions. Through our creativity, we identify ourselves as artists, teachers, entrepreneurs,
politicians, mothers, or fathers. (We may also identify with our mistakes and failures.)
The creative identity expands outward, through its ability to contribute and give back to
the larger system.

As this level matures, we begin to identify with larger possibilities and reach for
inspiration from the great works of civilization, from the inspiring acts of heroes and
saints, poets and painters. As we expand into the creative flux of the world around us,
we identify with our path. Our path is the realization of our personal contribution to the
larger system. Ideally, the path leads to an ever-expanding growth of consciousness
and an eventual transcendence of the personal self into the transpersonal self. Its
foundation is a healthy ego, social confidence, and a sense of compassion for others.
Chakra Sk: In the sixth chakra, we expand into our archetypal identity, transforming
the individual / into something transpersonal. Our personal story is now seen as an
event in a larger story. If we suffered from poor mothering because our mothers were
not supported, we carry a piece of the archetypal story of the degradation of the Mother
Goddess — the loss of the archetypal Mother. The power that our mothers lacked was
the same power that has been stripped from women over millennia, stripped from the
archetype itself. Those who suffered from distant fathers carry a piece of the larger story
of industrial revolution, of disempowered men removed from their families, and the
distant Father-God archetype.

We enlarge our understanding of Self as we find our own life themes reflected in fairy
tales, mythology, movies, and news stories. We experience self-reflection in the larger
system. We realize we are players in a much larger drama, riding the waves of the
cultural tide's ebb and flow. As we mature at this level, we consciously embrace the
evolution of the archetypal symbols that speak to us. If we take on a crusade for the
preservation of the ancient forests, we are doing more than just saving trees — we
contribute to a larger archetypal cause.

Chakra Seven: In the crown chakra, we come to the final and largest identity: our
universal identity. The more our consciousness expands, the larger our identity can
become. As we realize the magnificent scope of the cosmos, we have the opportunity to
transcend our smaller, more limited world, and identify with the entire universe. This is a
common theme in mystical experiences where the identification with the smaller ego
states gives way to recognition of a unitary identity with all of life, indeed of all creation.
In Eastern philosophy, this is the basis of true self-knowledge— -the knowledge of
divinity within.

The chakra levels move from exclusively individual identities — as unique and singular
as our bodies — toward a universal commonality. At the outer extreme of the crown
chakra, individuality is transcended and absorbed in the larger field of the divine. This is
expressed by the Buddhist maxim: Thou Art That. The purpose of the crown chakra,
meditation, and indeed, of most spiritual disciplines, is to break through the bonding with
the smaller identities and to achieve realization of the universal identity. This does not
deny the reality of the smaller identities; it just means that we see them as part of a
unified and integrated whole.

Each identity is primary when our developmental process is centered there. Like
Maslow's hierarchy of needs, we must consolidate our identities on the lower levels
before we can sustain the larger identities, even though we may catch glimpses of them
from time to time quite out of order. As we experience the higher, more inclusive

identities, our lower identities slide into appropriate perspective — no less important, yet
taking their place as pieces supporting a much larger, more powerful whole.

DEMONS OF THE CHAKRAS

The unconscious is not just evil by nature, it is also the source of the highest good; not
only dark but also light, not only bestial, semihuman, and demonic but superhuman,
spiritual, and, in the classical sense of the word, "divine."

C. G.JUNG

Each of the chakras has what I have come to call a specific demon that interferes with
its health and undermines its identity. I use the word demon not to denote some kind of
evil creature, but as a way of naming the counterforce that seemingly opposes the
natural activity of the chakra. The reason I say seemingly is that demons arise to teach
us something. A counterforce usually results in strengthening whatever it opposes. The
presence of the demon keeps the chakra from doing its job, but that challenge also
forces us to bring more awareness to that job, so eventually we can do it better.
When unacknowledged, the demons keep us from moving forward. They fixate our
energy at a particular chakra level, short-circuiting our activities and expression,
blocking resolution. If we acknowledge the demon and explore its reason for being
there, we gain a deeper understanding of ourselves. To acknowledge that we have fear,
for example, enables us to face that fear and understand its origins, eventually making
us more confident. To acknowledge grief enables healing, and allows the heart to
lighten.

6
5

Attachment

Illusion

3
2
1

Lies

Grjef

Shame

GutLT

Fear

Figure 0.9. Demons of the Chakras
The demons are discussed in detail in each of their respective chakras. What follows is
a brief description of each to give you an overall idea of their range (see Figure 0.9).
The demon of chakra one is fear. Fear arises when something threatens our survival. It
prevents us from feeling secure, focused, and calm. It creates hypervigilance, which
forces energy into the upper chakras.

The demon of chakra two is guilt. Guilt undermines the natural flow of emotional and
sexual energy through the body, and inhibits us from reaching out, diminishing
emotional and sexual connections with others.

Chakra three has shame as its demon. Shame undermines self-esteem, personal
power, spontaneous activity, and joy. Shame collapses the third chakra and turns its
radiating energy inward against the self.

Grief is the demon of the heart chakra. Grief counteracts the heart's lightness and
expansion, and makes it feel heavy and closed. Grief results from hurts to the heart.
Lies are the demonic antithesis to the communication of truth in the fifth chakra. Lies
twist our relationship to the outside world through distorted information.
Illusion is the demon of chakra six. Illusion fixates the attention and keeps us from
seeing accurately.

And finally, attachment is the demon of the seventh chakra. Attachment is the small
focus of attention that obscures realization and unity with cosmic consciousness.

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their
exits and their entrances. And one man in his time plays many parts; his acts being
seven ages.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Development of the skills and concepts related to each chakra occur progressively in
life, each completed stage supporting the healthy awakening of the next chakra.
Although we function through all of our chakras most of the time, there are specific
developmental stages in which the various chakra skills are learned and incorporated
into the personality. Typically, the chakras evolve sequentially, from bottom to top, along
with our chronological age (see Figure 0.10). It is sometimes necessary for the next
chakra phase to begin in order for the one below it to complete.

mm

Adulthood
Adolescence

7 TO 12 YEARS

4 TO 7 YEARS

18 MONTHS TO
4 YEARS

6 MONTHS TO 2 YEARS

Womb to

12 MONTHS

Figure 0.10. Developmental Stages
Figure 0.1 1 . Comparative Theories of Development

Chajuu

1 - Muladhara

2 - Svtidlmthtma

3 - A/dflJirHtd

■T

Identity

Emotional

Ace

Womb to 12 months

1 3 month* ws 4 yen

Fmutj

Oral

Oral

Ana)

Rekh/

Schizoid
(Creative)

t>nl
(Lover)

Muochiit
(Endurcr)

Chailtngfr-DcfRidtr

PlAr.l 1

ScniOry-itlOlQt
(SujsH 1 & 2)

SciiJory-rrtCKtu
(Sugn 3 co 6}

Preoperational

Erijuow

TruU v*. rniiinut

Trust vs mirtnm*

Autonomy vs.
iKame and doubt

M>. .■ ■*

Physiological

Safety

Belonging**

Wilder.

PkromaOc,
urohonc

Typtionic/
(axial, praiuc.
lrrugt-bodie*)

McmbcrcHip vclf

obedience

1 1 'l 5 1 T'l I If! 1 i 1 1 I J 1 i

hedonism

Good boy/
met girl

PiTtH*>-

Lower collet dvc

Lower personal

Conscious

* I would add a ftage to Enkfon, torrc-spondmg to chakra 2, called wparatiuri
vi. attachment, leaving ITurt vi mittWH w chakra 1.

** Thn n Mallow's order To morr jpprnpmtrly rcflctl Ihc ctukrai. *elf-
h*™ would correspond to third chakra and belonging (0 fourth chakra,

4 * Atwhtaa

5 - Vusudha

6 - Ajntt

7 - Sahasraro

Six' la]

Creative

Archetypal

Universal

3 to 7 years

7 to 12 yean

Adolescence

Adulthood

Phallic

Latency

Adolescence

( iemtal

Rigid
(Achiever/Hysteric)

Psychopath
{ '. h .i [] c n ger/ 1 Mender

Preoperational

Concrete operations

Formal operations

Formal operations

Initiative vs. guilt

Industry vs.
inferiority

Identity vs.

1 „ r -

role contusion

Intimacy vs.
isolation,
generativity vs.
self-absorption,
integriry vs. despair

Self-esteem**

Self-actualization

Transcendence

Transcendence

Early cgoie
person ic

Middle egoie
pcrwnic

Centaur/ existential,
late egoic,
mature ego.

1 L 1

low subtle

High subdc,
causal,
ultimate

Law and order

Social contract

Universalis m

Univcrsalism

Conscious,
self

Conscious
self

Higher unconscious,
higher collective,
unconscious

Transpersonal

Therefore, there is some overlap between the development of one chakra and the next.
There is also, of course, variation from person to person, a discrepancy which gets
broader in the upper chakras.

The first complete round of chakra development takes roughly twenty years, with the
whole cycle starting over again on a more complex level when the child leaves home
and begins his or her adult life. Descriptions of the stages listed below are necessarily
brief, with more detail given in subsequent chapters — this is meant to outline the
unfolding developmental process. These stages can be compared with other
developmental models, as shown in Figure 0.1 1 .
Chakra One

Mid-pregnancy to 12 months after birth,
peaklngat4to5inoiiths^^

If there is anything we wish to change in the child, we should first examine and see
whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.

C.G.JUNG

The first chakra relates to the formation of the physical body and takes place during

prenatal development and infancy. In this stage body growth is most rapid, and is
therefore the main focus of the life force. The infant's developmental task is to learn how
to operate the body — how to suck, eat, digest, grasp, sit, crawl, stand, walk, and
manipulate objects — in general, to deal with the physical world and the challenging
force of gravity. These tasks are incredibly demanding and occupy the bulk of
consciousness throughout the first year.

Consciousness in the infant is focused internally, with little awareness of the outside
world. The baby lives in a fused symbiosis with the mother, not yet realizing a separate
sense of self. Until the child moves under his own steam, even minimal independence is
impossible. Discovery and mastery of motor functions is the first step toward this
independence.

Awareness in this stage focuses mainly on survival and physical comfort. When these
needs are properly met, it anchors the spirit into the physical body, and the child feels
welcomed into the world. Erik Erikson, in his eight stages of psychosocial development,
defines the struggle of this age as one of trust vs. mistrust. Successful progress
through this stage gives us a sense of hope and affirms our right to be here and our
right to have. This stage builds the foundation of security and groundedness that
enables self-preservation and forms the physical identity.
Chakra Two

6 months to 2 years, peaking at 12 to 18 months

The second chakra, which is typified by duality, sensation, feeling, and mobility, comes
into conscious attention at about six months when visual acuity allows the child to focus
on outside objects and gain a wider visual perspective. A noticeable state of alertness
occurs when the child sits up and for the first time becomes aware of things out of
immediate range. 7

As the child learns to crawl and walk, she develops the ability to move away from her
mother and experience brief episodes of independence. Called hatching by Margaret
Mahler, the infant is just beginning to discover that she is a separate self, hatching from
the egglike symbiosis of chakra one. As she is still very dependent upon the mother,
this discovery is simultaneously frightening and exciting, and therefore fraught with
ambivalence as she plunges into a world of diversity and choices. Although Erikson's
first stage of trust vs. mistrust extends into this period, I would give this stage a
separate name, characterized by the conflict of separation vs. attachment.
As the child explores, she experiences her first distinctions as binary choices — good
and bad, pleasure and pain, closeness and distance, self and other. In this stage, these
distinctions are felt, rather than understood. At this point, the child is all need, sensation,
and desire. Needs want to be satisfied. Sensation gives way to desire. Needs and
desires mark the motivation for locomotion — seeing something and moving toward it,
merging with it, and incorporating it (most often through the mouth). As language is not
yet developed, the prime means of communication is through emotion, which hopefully
is responded to in a caring and meaningful way.

This stage focuses on the formation of an emotional identity which is mainly interested
in self gratification.
Chakra Three

18 months to approximately 4 years

Chakra three begins with the period of attempted autonomy that occurs with the "terrible
twos" (also known as the willful stage). The child has now successfully "hatched" from
the mother, and is secure enough in this separateness to want to experiment with his
own volition. What was only powerless wishing in the second chakra now becomes an
act of will, with some small hope of success. The development of language allows the
child to conceive of time in terms of cause and effect. This realization makes it possible
to begin controlling impulses and delaying gratification. (If I eat my vegetables, I will get

dessert.) Here the unconscious, instinctual states of the lower two chakras start to come
under conscious control, signaling the emergence of the conscious self and the
awakening of the ego.

The strength of our ego boundaries is the result of each properly
jlopmental crisis.

JOHN BF

The child at this stage is naturally self-centered, and wishes to establish a sense of
personhood, power, and the ability to self-create and self-define. He is aware of himself
as a separate entity, and is now focused on power dynamics through exploration and
development of his personal will.

The important achievement here is a sense of autonomy and will, balanced
harmoniously with the will of others. Breaking the child's will is extremely damaging, as
is allowing the child an excessive sense of control without setting limits. Erikson refers
to this stage as autonomy vs. shame and doubt. Healthy resolution brings about power
and will.

This is the formation of a personal ego identity, mainly focused on self-definition.
Chakra Four
4 to 7 years

Chakra four develops as one leaves the stubborn egocentricity of the third chakra and
begins to show interest in relationships outside of the primary ones with Mother and
Father. This does not mean that the heart has not already been open, as any parent of
a toddler will attest. In earlier phases, the heart is open but not intelligent, being
unconscious of its loving. As chakra four awakens, loving becomes more conscious,
meaning that behaviors are consciously adapted to gain or express love.
The autonomy developed in chakra three forms a foundation for relationships with
others. Relationships within the family provide the child's first model of how to form her
own relationships. The child now internalizes these family relationships and begins to
have playmates her own age. The nature of any of these relationships greatly affects
the child's self-esteem, and for this reason, rejection or loss can be particularly
damaging at this stage.

The world of the family is the social foundation for entering the larger world of school or
day care. Conceptual thinking makes it possible to perceive the world as a complex set
of relationships, and learning these relationships is the dominant task at hand. "Why
does the fire make it warm?" "Why does Susie's mommy drive a different car?" "Why
does Daddy have a beard and you don't?" Learning how things relate to each other is
the main focus of consciousness at this stage.

This stage heralds the formation of our relationship programs and our social identity.
The successful formation of a healthy social identity rests on self-acceptance, which
simultaneously allows for the acceptance of others. Erikson called this stage initiative
vs. guilt, with resolution bringing about direction and purpose, essential to the next level
above.
Chakra Five
7 to 12 years

This is the stage of creative expression. Once the social identity is developed and one
understands basic relationships between Self and world, a period of personal creativity
unfolds. If preceding stages have gone well, then the child has a solid sense of self, and
is filled up energetically and emotionally. Now there is a desire to move that energy
forward into creativity, into the act of giving something back, of making one's own
offering to the world. The ability to make this offer and be appreciated for it is essential
for maintaining ego strength. The child's thinking now operates on a more symbolic
level, allowing creativity and more abstract thinking (Piaget's concrete operations).
Erikson called this stage industry vs. inferiority, where resolution results in a sense of

competence. This is a period of expansion, experimentation, and creativity. For this
reason it is important to support the child's natural curiosity and creativity. It is also
important to model healthy forms of communication.

This is the formation of a creative identity, with the important property of self-
expression.
Chakra Six
Adolescence

The awakening of this chakra requires an ability to recognize patterns and apply them to
life decisions. This is the emergence of Piaget's formal operations stage, where
imagination helps the child develop his symbolic conception of the world.
For adolescents, it marks a period of reexamining their social identity — this time making
it a more conscious choice, whereas the fourth chakra social identity is largely created
in unconscious reaction to family dynamics. There may be a dawning interest in spiritual
matters, mythology, or symbolism, whether through music, lyrics, popular movie icons,
or the latest fashion at school. When allowed to mature, this leads to the formation of
archetypal identity, whose interest is self-reflection. Erikson named the conflict of
adolescence as identity vs. role confusion.
Chakra Seven

Early adulthood and beyond

The seventh chakra is related to the pursuit of knowledge, the formation of a worldview,
and the awakening of spiritual pursuits. Each new piece of information is filtered through
the developing worldview (a constantly changing structure), forming the basis of all
future behavior. The seventh chakra is largely concerned with the search for
meaning — asking questions about the nature of life, the universe, and the Self within.
This leads to the formation of a universal identity, which is found at the core of the
awakened Self through self-knowledge.
Interactive Development
The Chakra System as a Whole

It is important to note the role of both ascending and descending energy currents as
development takes place. Borrowing some from Ken Wilber's developmental
psychology, we can see how the descent of consciousness from the crown couples with
the organization of raw energy from below, and stimulates the ability to move on to the
next stages (see Figure 0.12). Having an awareness (chakra seven) of the body
(chakra one) allows us to differentiate from the body, and in so doing, to be able to
operate on it and hence operate on the physical world. The dawning of images (chakra
six) allows us to perceive a world outside of ourselves, and gives rise to a sense of
otherness and the desire to move and explore (chakra two). The development of
language skills (chakra five) allows us to exert our will (chakra three) as we say yes, no,
I will, or I won't. Language interaction gives us concepts to go with our movements,
feelings, or actions, and thus the conceptual world of relationships, characteristic of
chakra four, is born.

Difficulties occurring during any of these crucial stages can affect the chakra that is
developing at that time, as well as the chakras that follow. For example, one's sense of
power is positively affected by the security of getting survival needs properly met, ease
of the heart is supported by the nurturance of touch in the first and second chakra
stages, and our ability to communicate is supported by a balanced ego and a sense of
love and acceptance.

ADULT DEVELOPMENT

The Process of Individuation

Chakra development during childhood is relatively unconscious. Adult development, by
contrast, is largely conscious — we have to want to develop, or it may not happen at all.
For many people, adult chakra development never occurs as they remain in

dependency and powerlessness and never break from their programmed instinctual
patterns. They may never have spiritual cravings and may never discover the potential
of their higher selves. As the process of awakening is often fraught with challenge and
difficulty, who is to say whether they are better or worse off? But for those who are
unsatisfied with the script given them, who long for something greater, here is a
description of the second round of personal evolution through the chakras.

^Raw awareness (chakra 7}

All input comes together
as concepts
(chakra 4)

stimulates motor
development (chakra I)

■ Images expand awareness
(chakra 6) and stimulate
exploration and movement
(chakra 2}

<- Language denotes cause
(chakra 5) and effect
and stimulates impulse
control (chakra 3}

Figure 0.12. Combined Currents in Developmen t
iuation means becoming a single, homogeneous being, and in so
individuality embraces our innermost, last, and incomparable uniqueness, it also impli
becoming one's own self ... or "self-realization."

C. G. JUNG

Once the child leaves home and begins to live independently (early adulthood), the
chakra stages begin again. The second round is not as clearly defined, as there is much
more potential for variation in the developmental order. Some people have children
before they develop a job skill, others go to school for years and years. Some begin with
spirituality and have a family later, or never have a family at all. Some spend a short
time establishing an economic base, a relationship, or a mode of creative expression,
while others spend their whole life at any one these tasks. What follows is a general
guideline — and could perhaps be seen as optimal rather than actual. For this reason,
ages are not listed.

Chakra One: The first issue to solve is one of survival — getting a place to live, learning
to care for yourself, and finding a means of independent income. The time spent on this
stage clearly varies from person to person — for some it is a lifelong struggle. Successful
completion marks basic independence and self-sufficiency.

Chakra Two: Once this is accomplished (or simultaneously) one forms sexual
relationships. This is not to say that sexuality has not been occurring for many years,
but awareness of "other" now becomes more acute and the need for partnership may
become primary. Satisfaction of emotional needs is the underlying drive, usually
projected on the partner. Emotional frustration may awaken unconscious patterns from
the shadow, which may sabotage early relationships, often with misunderstandings,
blaming, and emotional turmoil. This is even more acute when the adult senses of
personal will and responsibility have not yet awakened.

Chakra Three: In adults, the individuation process liberates us from having to conform
to the expectations of parents, friends, or culture, and allows us to become a true
individual operating under our own power and will. Here we move from dependency,
powerlessness, and obedience to the creation of our own path and future. This may or
may not awaken in one's life. It is often triggered by meaningless jobs, or the
enslavement of relationships in which we are defined by the needs and expectations of
the other person.

Here begins the task of making our own way in the world — developing a personal
career, building skills to meet challenges, and controlling our destiny. This may be a
time of political involvement, of seeking affinity with others who are fighting their own
powerlessness, whether through political affinity groups, recovery groups, or spiritual
groups. The misaligned third chakra seeks power over others; the awakened third
chakra seeks power with others.

Chakra Four: The focus on relationships eventually matures into true empathy and
altruism and the maintenance of lasting partnerships. Relationships that have gotten
past the hormone stage usually require a serious reevaluation of one's behavior toward
others. Sometimes the loss of a previous relationship causes us to examine the nature
of all our relationships, including our family of origin. If there are children, there is an
emphasis on family dynamics. Relationships with colleagues, coworkers, friends, and
community add to the complexity of this midlife stage.

We may also examine ourselves in terms of our relationship to the world around us.
What role have we been playing? What role do we want to play? What do we seek from
relationships? What parts of ourselves have been repressed and need to be reclaimed?
Jung marked the fourth chakra as the midlife beginning of individuation, focused initially
on the balance between inner masculine and feminine, or animus and anima.9
Chakra Five: Once again, creative and personal expression come into play. This is the
stage where one makes their personal contribution to the community. It may mean
creating a business, writing a book or thesis, building one's own house, or seriously
pursuing an artistic hobby. This creative expression helps coalesce issues experienced
in the previous stages. With most people it occurs around midlife. With more creative
personalities, it happens much sooner and may precede or dominate other activities. It
may also be a period of marking our contribution through public service.
Chakra Sdc: This stage involves the reflection and study of patterns through exploration
of mythology, religion, and philosophy. There may be a period of searching in the form
of travel or renewed study of inner paths. This is an introverted stage of taking in from
outside, having satisfied one's extroverted urges and wanting further inner
development. (For those who begin in introversion, it may be time to communicate what
has been learned to the outside world.) This is also a time of spiritual interest and
development, if such has not already occurred. Such searching intensifies when
children are grown and the adult has more time and freedom for contemplation and
spiritual practice.

Chakra Seven: This is the time of wisdom, spiritual understanding, knowledge, and
teaching. Now we bring together information gathered throughout life, and pass it on to
others. For some this means leaving the mundane world for a spiritual pursuit, while for
others it is a time of teaching and sharing, a time to develop mastery.
Again, it must be stressed that these developmental stages, especially the second
cycle, are not the same for everyone, nor are they experienced in the same order. Adult
development is often arrested by unresolved childhood conflicts. If you find that you
have not gotten very far on some of these levels, then this book is for you. It will help
you find where you might have gotten stuck and explain how to proceed on the path of
liberation toward wholeness.

In the following chapters, the preceding principles are applied to each chakra in detail. It

must be remembered, however, that this is a model, rather than a rigid dogma.
Individual people are very complex and, in order to be valid, one's whole chakra pattern
must be examined. Whenever I teach my workshops, I always get a host of questions
along the lines of, "My friend has or does so and so. What chakra is that?" It is seldom
that simple. Linking specific symptoms to specific chakras is not enough. For instance, a
timid person (deficient third chakra), may be suffering from poor grounding (deficient
first chakra), tumultuous feeling states (excessive second chakra), or any number of
other possibilities. What is important is to first understand the complete system and then
to examine each person as a whole, using reason, intelligence, competence, and
compassion. Only then will the assessment be complete.

CHAKRA ONE

Reclaiming the Temple of the Body

FIRST CHAKRA AT A GLANCE

ELEMENT

Earth
NAME

Muladhara (root)

PURPOSE

Foundation

ISSUES

Roots

Grounding

Nourishment

Trust

Health

Home

Family

Prosperity

Appropriate boundaries

COLOR

Red

LOCATION

Base of spine
Coccygeal plexus
IDENTITY
Physical

ORIENTATION

Self-preservation

DEMON

Fear

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE

2nd trimester to 12 months

DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS

Physical growth

Motor skills

Object permanence

BASIC RIGHTS

To be here and have

BALANCED CHARACTERISTICS

Good health

Vitality

Well grounded
Comfortable in body
Sense of trust in the world
Feeling of safety and security
Ability to relax and be still
Stability
Prosperity
Right livelihood

TRAUMAS AND ABUSES

Birth trauma

Abandonment, physical neglect
Poor physical bonding with
mother

Malnourishment, feeding
difficulties

TRAUMAS AND ABUSES (CONT'D)
Major illness or surgery
Physical abuse or violent

environment
Enema abuse

Inherited traumas — parents'

survival fears (i.e., holocaust

survivors, war veterans,

poverty conditions)
DEFICIENCY
Disconnection from body
Notably underweight
Fearful, anxious, restless,

can't settle

Poor focus and discipline
Financial difficulty
Poor boundaries
Chronic disorganization

EXCESS

Obesity, overeating
Hoarding, material fixation,
greed

Sluggish, lazy, tired
Fear of change, addiction to
security
Rigid boundaries

PHYSICAL MALFUNCTIONS

Disorders of the bowel, anus,
large intestine

Disorders of solid parts of the

body: bones, teeth
Issues with legs, feet, knees,

base of spine, buttocks
Eating disorders
Frequent illness (can be

deficient and/or excessive)
HEALING PRACTICES
Reconnect with body
Physical activity (aerobics,

weights, running, dance)
Lots of touch, massage
Bioenergetic grounding
Hatha yoga

Look at earliest childhood

relationship to mother
Reclaim right to be here
AFFIRMATIONS
It is safe for me to be here.
The earth supports me and

meets my needs.
I love my body and trust its

wisdom.

I am immersed in abundance.
I'm here and I'm real.

SHADES OF RED

When Mary walked into my office, the pain in her body was palpable, yet she was
unaware of it. She walked stiffly and nervously, her eyes darting about frantically,
hypervigilant for her own safety. She spoke rapidly as if with great fear, and the urgency
of her words revealed a deep suffering that in forty-six years had never been relieved.
Her body was constricted, thin, and wiry, and her history revealed a number of self-
destructive tendencies, including anorexic starvation in an attempt to annihilate her
body and live entirely in her mind. She was now developing numbness in her
extremities. Her hands, cut off from the waters of her soul, flitted nervously of their own
accord, like fish on a line. She could not tell if she was hungry or sleepy, warm or cold.
Disconnected from her body, it is no surprise that she also felt disconnected from life
itself.

This woman was clearly an individual, yet her suffering had common roots with many
clients I have seen over the years. She had tried other therapists who stayed entirely in
the realm of conversation, and none could touch the severe separation of mind and
body from which she suffered. Her plight is the plight of many, in varying degrees of
severity. Separated from the experience of our bodies, we are separated from our
aliveness, from the experience of the natural world, and from our most basic inner truth.
This division creates a dissociative state. Disconnected from our body, our actions
become compulsive — no longer ruled by consciousness or rooted in feelings, but fueled
by an unconscious urge to bridge the gap between mind and body at whatever cost.
To lose our connection with the body is to become spiritually homeless. Without an
anchor we float aimlessly, battered by the winds and waves of life.
Disconnection from the body is a cultural epidemic. Of all the losses rupturing the
human soul today, this alienation may be the most alarming because it separates us
from the very roots of existence. With jobs that are degrading, routines that are
automatic, and environments that annihilate our senses, we lose the joy that arises from
the dynamic connection with the only living presence we are guaranteed to have for the

whole of our lives: our body.

Mind severed from body, culture from planet — to lose our ground is to lose our home.
Dissociation produces dangerously disconnected actions. Senseless killings and drive-
by shootings (where another's body is seen as lifeless and meaningless, a thing of
one's own) pervade our newscasts, met with morbid fascination by anonymous viewers.
Women annihilate or silicone their curves to meet the cultural norm of model figures
plastered on billboards and magazines. Men pound their flesh into submission to build a
sense of power, often numbing their sensations and feeling. Many people fall into
addictions, numbing their aliveness with food, drugs, or compulsive activities. Children
are beaten, molested, and marshaled into obedience, driven from their own young
bodies before they even learn to understand them, driven by disembodied adults who
know not what they annihilate.

We are taught to control the body by way of the mind, which is considered far superior.
But the body has an intelligence whose mysteries the mind has yet to fathom. We read

in books how to eat, how to make love, how much sleep to get, and impose these
practices on the body rather than listening from within.

Without the body as a unifying figure of existence, we become fragmented. We repress
our aliveness and become machinelike, easily manipulated. We lose our testing ground
for truth.

Devaluation of the body is further perpetrated by many religious attitudes. Some
religions describe the body as the root of all evil, while others tell us that it is merely an
illusion or, at best, simply insignificant. Medical practices treat the body mechanically,
as a set of disconnected parts divorced from the spirit that dwells within. Standard
training for psychotherapists completely ignores the role of the body in mental health.
Conspicuous in their absence are requirements in anatomy, nutrition, allergies,
movement, yoga, neuromuscular alignment, bioenergetic character structures, or even
simple massage. The use of therapeutic touch or physical contact in any form is often
strictly forbidden, so great is the fear of sexual contamination. Universities educate our
minds at the cost of our bodies, where we sit completely still for days, months, and
years, training ourselves for sit-down jobs that continue to ignore the body's needs.
Is it any wonder that we equally ignore our physical surroundings, damaging the body of
the Earth in order to perpetuate our dissociated survival? Perhaps the increasing
problem of homelessness is a metaphor for our own cultural homelessness, for the
body is indeed the home for the spirit. Our health care crisis extends far beyond the
issue of insurance coverage — it is a crisis of connection with the biological reality of our
existence.

Degradation of our physical reality is a cultural epidemic for which there is no simple
cure, no pill to take, no miraculous healing. Nor can we necessarily ease the pain that
comes when the numbness wears off and we awaken to the constriction and abuse we
have previously accepted. Only by recovering the body can we begin to heal the world
itself, for as mind is to body, so culture is to planet. Healing the split between mind and
body is a necessary step in the healing of us all. It heals our home, our foundation, and
the base upon which all else is built.

V

UNFOLDING THE PETALS

Basic Issues of the First Chakra
The Body
Foundation
Survival
Roots
Grounding
Nourishment
Trust
Health
Home
Family

Prosperity

The Foundation of the Temple

All foundations rest upon the earth — the universal ground for all that we do. To connect
with the body is to connect with the earth, to be grounded in the biological reality of

existence. Our bodies are the home of our spirit. Situated at the base of the spine, the
first chakra is the foundation for the entire chakra system. It is here we build the
foundation for the temple of the body — the anchor for the Rainbow Bridge. Without a
strong, rooted foundation, little else can be accomplished. We must have soil firm
enough to provide stability, yet yielding enough to be penetrated by roots. The
anchoring of this temple digs deep into the earth, for its Sanskrit name, muladhara,
means "root support."

The foundation contains the temple's energy by defining its scope, edges, and
boundaries. It defines a place, as a basic context of all that happens to us. It gives us a
ground, a home, an anchor point for our experience. The foundation largely determines
the shape of the structure above, determining what it can hold, how high it can build,
what kind of stresses it can withstand. Thus damage to this chakra is reflected in each
and every chakra above.

To build a strong foundation is to gain solidity. Solidity allows us to be firm and make
boundaries. Solidity has consistency, repetition, accountability. Our bodies are the solid
form of our existence; they have definable boundaries. To be solid is to face what is in
front of us without flinching, to remain anchored in truth in the face of opposition, and to
remain calm and secure.
Survival

Survival is the first challenge to being alive, the original instigator of feeling, action,
creativity, and awareness. Without assuring survival, nothing is possible. By attending to
survival, everything is possible.

The underlying element of consciousness that forms this foundation is the instinct to
survive. This instinct is archaic, fundamental, and unavoidable and runs the baseline
maintenance program of our physical existence. When satisfied, it retreats to a
dronelike subroutine, allowing our consciousness to engage in other activities. When
threatened, it dominates all other functions of consciousness. Where are your thoughts
when you are suddenly chased by a mugger, spinning into a car accident, or facing a
life-threatening illness? At these times, all available psychic energy is routed to survival
and little is available for anything else.

When survival threats are frequent occurrences (as they are for someone raised amid
violence or severe poverty), then consciousness becomes fixated at this level. This
keeps the body in a state of hyperstimulated readiness, flooded with stress hormones
that promote the instinctual fight-or-flight response. One may feel restless, tense, and
unable to sleep deeply, which may lead to frequent health problems over time. This is
common in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a condition where stress reactions
continue to occur long after the trauma is over.

One of my clients grew up in a Guatemalan war zone. After fifteen years in a safer
environment, his muscles were still constantly tensed and ready to run. He had
insomnia and a serious jaw-clenching problem. He was fearful and jumpy and had
trouble concentrating and difficulty manifesting prosperity. He was a highly creative,
intelligent, sensitive man whose body was breaking down in his early thirties because
he could never relax. He could neither satisfy nor escape the demands of his first
chakra.

When the first chakra is damaged, we are plagued with issues of survival, including
health, money, housing, or job problems. We may find that a basic feeling of safety and
security seems to elude us no matter what we do even when there are no real threats to
our survival.

The survival instincts lie at the base of the collective unconscious, as inherited
tendencies and preferences that have developed in the human psyche over the course
of evolution. These instincts form the natural impulses of the body to defend itself and to
connect with the environment. When these natural instincts are denied, we have a

rupture between our waking consciousness and the very core of our being. We become
disembodied and disconnected from our environment. By reclaiming the first chakra, we
can live harmoniously with our basic survival instincts without being unconsciously ruled
by them.

The Demon of Fear

Scared is what happened when the sacred gets scrambled.

When survival is threatened, we feel afraid. Fear heightens our awareness and floods
the body with natural chemicals (such as adrenalin) to energize it for action. Fear brings
our attention into the here and now to address the threat, but focuses the attention
outward and upward to the chakras of perception and mental activity. We become
hypervigilant, restless, anxious. We can't settle, relax, or let down. It's as if we are
jumping right out of our skin.

When we live in an environment of danger or deprivation, we experience fear. If danger
was a frequent presence growing up, then fear pervades our baseline program for
survival. The sense of fear brings a feeling of safety, as paradoxical as that might
sound. We feel safe only because we are hypervigilant and become even more
uncomfortable when we try to relax. The nervous system and the adrenal glands remain
overworked. In this state of hyperarousal, our triggers are more sensitive and more
likely to react in extremes. Our foundation is literally shaky and concentration may be
difficult. As a result, the body is in a constant state of stress, which becomes normal.
This may eventually create high blood pressure, heart trouble, stomach troubles,
immune system depletion, weak adrenal glands, insomnia, or chronic fatigue.
Fear engages our survival instincts by getting us ready to respond. But if it becomes
constant, we lose our ability to respond appropriately.

Ideally, fear wakes us up from the sleepy hypnogogic state of merging and trust,
characteristic of the infant. When the threat cannot be overcome, we adapt to the fear
and form ourselves around a basic contraction and shakiness. This is contrary to the
healthy state of the first chakra, which is associated with safety, security, and solidity.
To work through fear is to learn to relax and feel the subtle energies of the body, to have
pleasure and expand our attention to a wider vista. To combat fear is to strengthen the
first chakra. To live with fear is to weaken it.

In order to fully ground into a solid foundation capable of supporting the rest of our
activities, the demon of fear must be overcome. This means first of all that the fear must
be understood. Where did it come from? How did it serve you? Understanding is not
enough, however, because the fear response is still lodged in the body. The next step is
to release and integrate the instinctual responses to the fear. Does it make you want to
run and hide? Does it make you angry and activated or paralyzed and confused?
Allowing the body to express these responses helps complete the gestalt of the
response to the original trauma. In its completion, the cycle of fear can be broken, and a
healthier pattern created. Finally, one must develop the strength and resources to
effectively meet similar threats in the future. This may include such things as building
self-esteem, learning martial arts, or improving communication skills.
Although fear is the demon of the first chakra, it is also a sacred adversary, a presence
that has much to teach us. Fear exists as an ally of self-preservation, teaching us of our
own importance and the need to take care of ourselves. Only when we acknowledge
this demon as an ally can it be truly mastere d.

This external fear is never to leave us for long as we live with it; it operates as a
transpersonal stimulus for the development of consciousness, with which to oppose
what is feared ... without this fear, there would be no psychological development.

EDWARD WHITMONT

Ernest Holmes, who founded the Science of Mind philosophy, describes both fear and
faith as having similar qualities. Fear is a belief that something awful might happen,

while faith is a belief that something good will happen. Although the results are different,
the causes are the same — both are beliefs that govern our behavior and influence the
way we feel. If we can replace unreasonable fear with reasonable faith, then we have a
natural antidote to our first chakra demon.
Reclaiming Our Roots

The Sanskrit name for the base chakra, muladhara, means "root support." This chakra
roots us into our bodies, the physical world, and the earth. A plant cannot survive
without roots, and neither can the psyche of a human being. Our roots represent where
we come from: the earth, womb, our ancestors and family, and our personal history. We
cannot simultaneously deny our past and maintain our roots.

In order to create a solid foundation, we have to sort out the roots of our childhood. For
better or worse, these roots nourished and sustained us in our most formative stages.
Where the ground was inhospitable, we need to transplant our psyche to more fertile
soil. This involves paying attention to the environments we live in and the ground we
create around us.

The muladhara chakra corresponds to the element earth, which is the ground for our
roots. As stated in the introduction, human life is dependent upon a supply of energy.
Our roots can be seen as the way our system plugs in to the larger system of the planet,
which is our source, the origin of the liberating current, from which all things grow up.
The elements needed for physical survival come from the earth in various forms — the
food we eat, the things we touch and see, the water we drink, the air we breathe, and
the sounds we hear. We push against the earth in order to stand or move and we rest
upon the earth (nurtured by gravity) when we choose to be still.

For most of us, our roots are unconscious influences on our behavior, linked to
elements from our past. To bring muladhara to consciousness is to bring awareness to
our roots, to uncover the past, to examine it, to delve into it. Everything that grows
above branches out into infinity, growing more complex. Going down to our roots brings
us into a singular simplicity, and anchors us into the commonality of the collective
unconscious. It brings us home to the earth. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Just as the groundedness of a tree routes the flow of sap from earth to leaves and from
ives to earth, so does our groundedness channel the flow of excitement from

selves

STANLEY KELEMAN
Grounding

A healthy first chakra allows a person to be energetically grounded — a concept that is
critical to understanding basic aliveness and well-being. Grounding orients us in time
and space, and connects us to the environment. Being grounded gives us a source of
strength through connection to our body and environment. Physically this happens
through the legs and feet, through which excitement is passed up into the body and
excess is discharged downward into the ground. This means we can stand on our own
two feet and move forward in life. Only by drawing energy up from the base can we
create the liberating current that flows to the crown.

Grounding brings consciousness into the body, and is essential for forming healthy
boundaries. We feel more awake and alive when the downward current of
consciousness connects with the body and meets the edges and boundaries of physical
reality.

Many people who consider themselves spiritual have greatly improved their lives when
they learned to send their energy downward as well as upward. We are typically taught
that spirituality is only found in the nonphysical realms, yet to truly experience our
body's aliveness is to experience a profoundly spiritual state — achieved by embracing
our natural tendencies rather than denying them through ascetic practices,
mighty oak was once a little nut that stood its ground.

When we are grounded, we can be present, focused, dynamic. Our attention is
concentrated in the here and now, bringing a dynamic intensity to the way we present
ourselves. Our experience is direct, sensate, immediate. We are confident yet
contained, connected with our own source of support.

To be grounded is to be connected to our emotional-electrical currents, to the waves of
our needs and images and the rhythms of actions which comprise our physical-psychic
processes: the rhythms of the human and natural ground.

STANLEY KELEMAN

Without grounding we are unstable. We lose our center, fly off the handle, get swept off
our feet, or daydream in the fantasy world. We lose our ability to contain, which is the
ability to have and to hold. If we cannot contain, we cannot hold our boundaries and
build up inner power; thus, we cannot mature. Boundaries allow the hermetic seal
necessary for transformation. Without boundaries, natural excitement gets dissipated
and diluted and becomes ineffectual. When we lose our ground, our attention wanders
and we appear vague and insubstantial.

The healthy establishment of one's ground is the essential work of the first chakra, and
the foundation for any further growth. Here lies the basic rights of the first chakra: the
right to be here and to the right to have what we need in order to survive.
Nourishment

The need for nourishment forces us to remain open as

with our environment.

Nourishment is our most basic form of support for the body's survival. Our past history
determines how we support and nourish ourselves. Without support, we fall. Without
nourishment, we collapse. Persons who embody a sense of physical collapse are
revealing a lack of support in their life and their bodies show a corresponding sense of
defeat. They may question their right to be here, have difficulty nourishing themselves,
or suffer from abandonment issues.

Eating disorders are often manifestations of first chakra issues of nourishment. My
friend Connie turned to food whenever she felt lonely, trying to make solidity out of her
feelings of emptiness. Mary, whom we met earlier, so questioned her right to be here
that she literally doubted her right to feed herself and frequently went days without
eating. Reclaiming our right to be here, learning to ground, and attending to our need for
nourishment are all first chakra necessities.
Manifestation and Prosperfty

The characteristics of good grounding, connection with our bodies and the physical
world, self-nourishment, and self-preservation contribute to the ability to manifest
prosperity. I am not talking about being rich here — I am talking about meeting basic
survival needs in ways that offer security, stability, and enough freedom to expand
beyond survival consciousness. This means being able to keep the rent or mortgage
paid, keeping the car in good repair, keeping our homes relatively clean and running
smoothly, and putting regular meals on the table. This is about being able to handle the
basic demands of the earth plane, the requirements of living in a physical body. In order
to meet these survival needs, we must be able to deal with our immediate physical
environment — to extract from it what we need for our personal or familial preservation.
This is the testing ground of our first chakra abilities. It gives us a means for our own
independence, enabling us to stand on our own two feet, to stand in our own ground.
Only by standing in our own ground can we determine our future.
The first chakra is the most specific and limited level in the system. A limitation is a
boundary, separating something from what is around it in order to define it. A boundary
creates a necessary limitation that allows us to have something whole, something
specific.

In order to manifest, we must be able to accept limitation. We have to be able to focus

on what we want, to be specific about it. We have to be able to stick with it long enough
for manifestation to occur. I have to be able to sit in my chair for months on end to
manifest this book. It may be necessary to stick with long periods of schooling or
training to manifest a good job skill. To become proficient at something, we have to
practice it over and over again, limiting ourselves to that specific activity until we master
it.

I have known many highly intelligent and talented people, especially in the New Age
and counterculture circles, who could not manifest prosperity. What I have also noticed
in this group is an unrealistic attachment to freedom, an unwillingness to accept
limitation long enough to manifest their basic needs. As a result, they do not have
freedom at all, but enslavement to a first chakra level of consciousness. As a freedom-
loving Sagittarian, I spent the decade of my twenties in this state. I was free from the
restrictions of a boring job, but I also was too poor to do anything with my freedom. It
was not until I accepted limits with grace that I manifested any prosperity for myself.
Manifestation requires an acceptance of limitation. A boundary allows us to contain,
thus collect and build.

When we cooperate with first chakra limitations, our energy builds up and naturally
expands to other levels. When we rebel against these limitations, we are kept in survival
mode and are unable to get our liberating current up off the ground. The essential
paradox here is that we must accept limitation in order to transcend it. This theme
applies to all the chakras — we must consolidate each level in order to move on.

GROWING

THE LOTUS

Developmental Formation of the First Chakra at a Glance

AGE

Womb to 12 months
TASKS
Physical growth
Motor development
Bonding
NEEDS AND ISSUES
Trust
Nourishment
Safety
Right to be here

A Game of Pretend

Allow yourself, for a moment, to enter the experience of the newborn infant. You have
just left the warm and dark womb where everything was provided for you and emerge
now into dazzling light and cold. You open your eyes and see blurred images, hear
sounds louder than you have ever before heard. You are scared and hungry. Some
basic instinct draws your mouth to a breast and you suck your first juices of life, warm
milk flowing into your empty belly. You relax, temporarily feeling safe. You have begun
/our lifelong journey with the most difficult task of all — getting born.

at this time is to help the child come fully into her body, develop a ser

of safety about the world around her.

For the first several months of your life, you can't do anything for yourself. You
understand nothing and have almost no control over your body or surroundings. You
can't speak the language, so you can neither communicate nor understand anything
said around you, yet your life depends on getting your needs met.
Though you gradually master simple tasks, this is your basic state during the first year
of life. The meeting of your needs is beyond your control, yet you need everything.
There is a frightening feeling that was not present in the womb. Things are not provided
automatically as they were in the womb. There are periods of hunger, cold, discomfort,
and pain.

Whether these needs are miraculously met creates your psychological foundation for
relating to the world: trust or mistrust. Because you do not understand the mechanism
for getting your needs met (crying is automatic, and unintentional at this stage), the
issue of trust vs. mistrust becomes a basic experience of your very self. This is your
first vague sense of whether or not you are glad to be here.

Our family determines how we find our ground, how we form our territory. If we do not
have plenty of touching and holding, we may never be sure of ourselves emotionally, of
the ground we stand on, since we cannot trust others to hold us.... People who are not
held enough have a fear of falling and hold themselves stiffly away from the earth.

STANLEY KELEMAN

Trust or mistrust is the basic element of your first chakra program, which is a foundation
for all the other programs that follow. Trust enables your body to unfold from its
cramped position, allows security and calm, and encourages connection, bonding, and
exploration. With trust, the survival instinct is satisfied, and there is a sense of emotional
well-being. If you are confident that the world is a friendly place, you have the sense
that you will live. Without trust, your survival feels constantly threatened, and because
there is nothing you can do to meet the threat, the anxiety is unbearable.
The substance of survival — feeding, holding, warmth, and physical comfort — must come
from outside you. This is provided by your roots, meaning your parents, family, and
caretakers. The degree to which parents succeed at this task depends a great deal on
the kind of support they received as infants and children, and what kind of support
system they have for themselves while you are young. Are grandparents helpful and
supportive? Is there adequate money for the family to take care of needs? Does the
mother have to work? Does she eat well while pregnant and nursing? All of these affect
your first chakra development.

In the first few months of life your nervous system responds instinctually. Signals come
from within your body — hunger, cold, discomfort — and are communicated
spontaneously through movement or crying. Your consciousness is not developed
enough to block any flow of energy. You are utterly open, as you have not yet learned to
filter out anything unwanted. Your infant body is literally flooded with aliveness or
charge. It is from this state that you form your first chakra and the very beginnings of
self.

Environment as Self

For the developing fetus, the uterus is the first experience of body, the first home and
environment, and the ground of being from which life emerges. For this reason this
environment has an important and often overlooked influence on first chakra
development. The mother's nutritional balance and her emotional states during
pregnancy play a role in the texture of the child's personal ground. When the womb is
tight, the infant learns to contract her own body. When the mother is afraid or tense,
chemicals flow through the uterine environment, stimulating a level of heightened
energy that becomes a normal baseline state for the fetus inside. If the mother uses
substances like tobacco, alcohol, or drugs, the child inside uses them too.
Human life begins in a state of pre-egoic embedment. The neonatal condition is one of

immersion in the Dynamic Ground prior to the articulation of any sense of individuated
selfhood.... In the state of original embedment, the neonate is, in effect, in a womb
outside the womb. He is in a state of psychic gestation antecedent to the delivery and
development of the ego.

MICHAEL WASHBURN

Birth is the gateway into life and the beginning of individuality. It is the first step in our
lifelong journey and has a marked effect on how we feel about that journey. Yet the
infant is not aware of that individuality for quite some time. For the first five to six
months, she remains in a state of fused identity and has no concept of a separate self.
The mother's body, voice, touch, and general presence are all part of a unified,
undifferentiated whole experience of life.

The state of both mother and environment become, literally, the first experience of self.
If the mother is warm and attentive, the environment comfortable and supportive, then
this is how we experience ourselves. The charge flowing through us is warm, exciting,
and positive. If the mother is cold and cruel and the environment is painful, then our first
experiences of life and of self have a negative charge. This programming provides a
basic building block of all further development and is why first chakra issues show up in
all the chakras that follow.

If reflexive body gestures and sounds (such as crying) produce relief in the form of food,
warmth, and comfort, then the continuity between inside and outside remains unbroken
and the fused state continues until there is enough awareness and motor development
to begin separating. If the child is unable to get her needs met, then she develops
growing distrust of the outer world, a dissociation from the inner world, and a feeling of
helplessness and inadequacy at the core of her being. The need for the inner and outer
worlds to remain consistent is extreme in the young child for many years to come, but
especially during a period when there is no distinction. If our instinctual impulses do not
get us the things we need in order to survive, we learn to distrust or ignore them, and
simultaneously perceive the world as hostile. To distrust our basic instincts is to put
ourselves at odds with the deep core of our physical being. It puts us at odds with our
ground and the natural world.

Erikson named this first struggle of life trust vs. mistrust, and described its healthy
resolution as a feeling of hope. "Hope is the enduring belief in the attainability of primal
wishes. "1 Hope gives us confidence, enthusiasm, positive thinking, and excitement
about life. It is the essential essence needed to thrive and move forward.
The developmental tasks at this stage center around learning to operate the body as the
basic vehicle of life. Awareness, coming down from the seventh chakra, is initially
focused on the body itself as the child discovers her hands, feet, fingers, and toes. She
learns through instinct to suck, grasp, roll over, sit up, creep, crawl, and walk. The child
also learns to make contact with the physical world by grasping and moving objects,
learning to handle a bottle or cup, using the sides of the crib to pull herself upright. She
eventually learns that objects continue to exist even when she cannot see them.
The first chakra program is preverbal, preconceptual, reflexive, and instinctual. Piaget
called it the sensory-motor period, where awareness is sensory and the task is motor
development.

At about six months, an amazing change takes place. The child sits up and becomes
vertical on her own for the first time. The chakras are now stacked up on each other,
and the energy begins to flow upward. Parents often notice an increased brightness and
presence in the child. Sitting up expands the field of visual perception, and
consequently the size of the world, marking the beginning of the second chakra.
Other first chakra developments continue, however, such as increasing body weight,
developing motor coordination, and strengthening the legs in preparation for walking.
Soon the child creeps, crawls, and walks, standing at last on her own two feet with

some degree of vertical independence. The fundamental building blocks of the
individual life have been created, and the child is ready to explore the world through her
senses and movement, opening the exciting realm of chakra two.

TRAUMAS AND ABUSES

Ar

anything that threatens survival, such as birth trauma, abandonment, neglect, serious
illness, malnourishment, extreme poverty, or physical abuse, impacts the first chakra.
The younger a child is when such things occur, the more likely these threats will
undermine first chakra formation. A smooth first year of life creates a solid foundation
that can better withstand or recover from difficulties later on.

When a young infant faces danger or neglect, it forces him to fall back on himself — an
independence which is developmentally impossible. Instead the child falls into an
intolerable pit of fear and helplessness — the experience of having no ground. When this
happens, the downward current of energy is blocked. Instead, the life force moves
toward the upper chakras, which feel safer. The upward movement then becomes
habitual, depleting the lower chakras and sending the system out of balance.
As the parent was to the child, so the mind is to the body.
Birth and infancy are beyond the conscious memory of most people. Yet, as primary
experiences, they indirectly pervade every aspect of our being. Recovery from these
traumas is a distinctly nonintellectual process. It requires returning to the messages and
movements of the body, immersing ourselves in our physicality, and reconnecting to
core impulses. The following is a closer look at some of the unfortunate events that
damage first chakra functioning during its crucial formative stages.
Birth Trauma

Birth is our first survival experience. Separation from the mother after birth is a
deplorable medical custom that is fundamentally traumatic to the infant. It is no wonder
that a culture practicing such a custom leaves people so out of touch with their ground
that we find ourselves suicidally damaging the earth, our collective ground.
Consciousness and culture change much more rapidly than the evolution of the physical
body. Only in the last century have babies been born into a technological environment,
compared to millions of years of moving from the womb into an equally organic
experience of contact with the mother, quiet, darkness, and containment. Technological
birth, in which the infant is pulled out into bright lights, spanked, and separated from the
mother, is such a shock to our ancient nervous systems that the experience is an
assault to our neurological sense of ground. Those first moments communicate that
something is terribly wrong, even though a newborn is not conscious of such a
formulation. Male infants are even further traumatized by circumcision without
anesthesia!

Fortunately, hospitals are becoming more aware of the need for continuity from womb to
mother and breast. Breast-feeding is making a comeback, and postnatal contact is
finally recognized as crucial to mother-child bonding. In the meantime, we have several
generations that endured ground-wrenching birth experiences. For most of us,
reclamation of our body and ground must be a conscious act instead of a literal
birthright.

Birth traumas can set up further difficulties and weaknesses. The child of a horrible birth
is more likely to cry, be needy, and have health problems. The crying may in turn inhibit
parent-child bonding, causing stress in the new parents, which leads them to further
neglect or abuse. When the ground is properly laid in, and the child is well received,

nurtured, and cared for, then he is relatively calm, and more likely to receive the positive
regard and support of others in those important first few months.
The period immediately following birth is the most impressive part of life outside the
mother's body. What a baby encounters is what he feels the nature of life to be.

JEAN LIEDLOFF

Incubator babies are deprived of the mother's touching and suckling. Seeing loving
faces through glass without being touched is disembodying. Adults who were incubator
babies may have a tendency to view their lives as surreal and put up with distant
relationships without knowing how to bring them closer. There is a vague sense that
something is missing from life, but they are unable to grasp what it is. Isolation feels
normal and is therefore too easily accepted; they are missing the experience of safety
and bonding, and therefore of solid contact with their own body.
Abandonment

Abandonment, whether physical or emotional, directly impacts our survival. A child that
is not touched enough experiences a kind of abandonment, even when other care is
provided. Physical nurturing is so essential that children in institutions deprived of touch
often die from a disease called marasmus, a Greek word for "wasting away." They
simply do not have enough energy to form themselves from food alone. In the 1920s,
studies revealed a death rate for institutionalized babies of 90 to 1 00 percent; the few
that did survive were the ones graced by brief periods in foster homes. 2
Abandonment can be subtle or blatant. Any time a young child is separated from his
birth parent, he feels somewhat abandoned. Short periods of separation are normal and
do not cause lasting harm. Longer periods, such as lengthy hospital stays, divorces, or
long trips out of town, create profound insecurity. It is important to take time for extra
attention and assurance after such separations.

Even when a child is adopted, there is still an abandonment by a birth parent. Adoptive
parents need to make up for the child's separation anxiety by providing consistent love
and security — more than natural children would need.

Abandonment threatens our survival. It makes us feel unwanted, and we doubt our right
to be here. It elicits fear, which may inhibit appropriate responses to common situations.
For instance, if we fear abandonment as adults, we may be afraid to speak up in our
relationships about the things we dislike for fear of being abandoned again. Or we may
accept abandonment too readily, and interpret the slightest criticism or mood change
from our partner as a signal that we are unwanted. The emptiness of abandonment may
be reexperienced every time it happens in adulthood, where the loss of a loved one
leaves us feeling like we're falling apart. The body itself may reflect this collapse, with
the muscles chronically undercharged, the legs weak, and the upper back hunched over
as if the spine cannot quite hold itself upright.

Abandonment during the formative years often results in an excessive first chakra — one
that overcompensates by clinging to security, food, loved ones, or routines. Janet was
unhappy with her job but was terrified to lose it for fear of never finding anything else.
Mariana's relationship was unfulfilling, but she was convinced she would be alone
forever if she left it. Marvin had plenty of money in the bank but could never spend it.
Each one clung to the security of what they had, essentially putting their energy in a
holding pattern that provided false security. Without basic trust, they all feared change.
Abandonment by others also creates a tendency to abandon oneself. Cindy, for
example, abandons whatever task she is doing at the slightest interruption. Sam takes
poor care of his body, forgetting to eat or bathe. Sarah abandons her own opinion when
she meets disagreement and adopts the other's opinion. Nathan abandons his projects
before he completes them, dropping out of school and leaving tasks unfinished at work
and home. Abandonment undermines the trust needed to develop a sense of security,
hope, and confidence. It undermines our very foundation of Self.

Neglect

Neglect is a subtler form of abandonment. Neglect is often intermittent, counteracting
the first chakra's basic job of stabilizing the entire system. If the neglect is mild enough
that we still survive, we grow up with a buried memory of helplessness that lacks a
connection to anything concrete. This instability leads to a mistrust of others, causing a
further alienation from those who might give support. Neglect also results in shame,
which heavily impacts the third chakra senses of self-esteem and personal power, as
well as the fourth chakra right to be loved. Like abandonment, neglect is often echoed in
the way we treat ourselves.
Feeding Difficulties

Malnourishment or hostile eating situations (such as Dad's outbursts of anger during
dinner) affect our ability nourish ourselves — an essential first chakra function. Whether
or not a child is breast-fed, the emotional state of the mother while feeding, and
inherited attitudes about food all impact this vital survival function. I have had more than
one female client who was not allowed to eat until her brothers were fed. Another told
me of having to sit at the table for four hours until she ate a cold plate of eggs. Some
children live in constant hunger, while others are overfed foods of poor quality, forced to
eat when not hungry, or manipulated by parents through food.

Adults who had these types of experiences as children have a hard time interpreting
true hunger messages. They may have food allergies, avoidance, or addiction to food.
This can appear as trust issues, eating disorders, digestive difficulties, or simply as the
stagnant energy that results from being a closed system, unable to incorporate new
input. Since nourishment comes in many forms — food, friends, or intellectual and
creative stimulation — this issue may translate to many other areas of life.
Enemas

Another first chakra trauma, more popular a generation ago, is the trauma of enemas.
Repeated use of enemas is tantamount to sexual abuse, only the abuse is to the first
chakra rather than the second chakra of sexuality (though in some cases it may have
sexual overtones). This invasion of the area most closely related to the root chakra
destroys the trust so crucial at this stage, and literally fractures one's sense of solidity.
Difficulty with boundaries is guaranteed, creating either impenetrable walls or
nonexistent boundaries. The first chakra right to have is denied, as the child's only
solid creation is taken away against their will at a time out of sync with the body. In
reaction, energy is pulled upward toward the head, resulting in either an inability to hold
and contain or an excessive need to do so, as well as a damaged sense of autonomy (a
third chakra issue).

No form of abuse is more binding than physical violence. The victim bonds to the
abuser out of terror — terror for his or her life.... The more one is beaten, the more one's
self-worth diminishes. The more one thinks they are lowly and flawed as a human
being, the more one's choices diminish. One becomes bonded to violence.

JOHN BRADSHAW

This does not mean, however, that any use of enemas is abusive. There are times
when it may be necessary for health reasons. It becomes abusive when it is used
excessively, unnecessarily, as an instrument of power or punishment to the child, or as
perverse sexual sublimation on the part of the parent.
Physical Abuse

Physical abuse causes pain and teaches children to dissociate from their bodily
sensations. The anxiety from the abuse produces stress hormones and this heightened
state may become addictive, producing a need to create crisis throughout life in order to
feel alive and overcome the numbness of dissociation. Crisis puts us repeatedly in a
state of survival. Bodily dissociation may make one accident-prone, where edges,
boundaries, and dangers are not noticed. These minor injuries bring one home to the

familiar experience of pain. Coping strategies for dealing with physical abuse can
impact any and all of the chakras, with difficulties in surrendering to feelings (chakra
two), power dynamics and self-esteem (chakra three), relationships (chakra four),
communication (chakra five), clear seeing (chakra six), and clear thinking (chakra
seven).

As physical abuse literally harms the body, it will always show up in first chakra issues
in some way. It marks a profound betrayal of trust, as the child is always ill-matched for
protecting himself. Physical abuse may create excessive or deficient coping strategies,
either separating consciousness from the body or creating an obsession with the body
as a thing. Combinations of both dissociation and obsession are common, such as
numbness of feeling coupled with fastidious dieting.

Physical abuse has a fragmenting effect on the nervous system and a similar effect on
the natural flow of experience. In some cases, the body is physically damaged by cuts,
wounds, or broken bones. Does it not follow that the more subtle energy fields become
broken and fragmented as well? This makes it hard to mend the shattered sense of
stability, trust, safety, and well-being.

As physical abuse usually comes from someone within the home, daily life becomes
dangerous. Fear is then a constant companion — a way of relating to the world — and as
such becomes a touchstone for the experience of aliveness. This may cause one to
create future crisis situations, where the familiar sense of stress is used to stimulate that
sense of aliveness.
Accidents, Surgeries, Illnesses

James came from a relatively normal home without any of the apparent abuses that so
often plague my clients, yet his history showed an unbelievable series of freak
accidents. At age four, he was hit by a car and broke his leg. The next year he fell and
fractured his skull. Another year, he had acute appendicitis. At fifteen, the jack on a car
gave way while he was underneath, nearly killing him. When I saw him at age nineteen,
he had just been attacked by a mugger while delivering pizza at his evening job. James
was an intelligent and likable guy who had trouble sitting still, concentrating, or sticking
with anything. Though he was otherwise intact, he had a traumatized nervous system
from his many accidents.

Surgeries, severe illnesses, or accidental physical injuries can have traumatic effects on
the body and nervous system. Even surgery necessary for survival can traumatize the
body and psyche of the child going through the experience. We do not usually think of
car accidents as having long-term emotional effects, but many people report
unconscious fears, difficulty sleeping, changes in eating habits, prolonged nervousness,
and difficulty concentrating long after their physical injuries have healed.
Effects from these events can be harder to decipher as they may have been dismissed
as insignificant. Still, they leave their mark in the body, usually as post-traumatic stress
symptoms that exhibit an energetic fragmentation unrelated to current events. The
tendency to fragment may resemble the energetic process of the Schizoid structure (this
page), without its other physical or emotional characteristics. It is as if the impact of the
accidents sent the spirit out of the body, and it has not quite found its way back in. Just
as a cup that breaks and is reglued may have tiny leaks in it, the auric field does not
always seal completely, and there may be difficulty with containment, focus, grounding,
and other first chakra issues.
Inherited Trauma

Lucy was born two years after her sister died in the crib. Lucy's parents doted on her
and gave consistent attention to her every need. What fueled this care, however, was
her parent's fear that she, too, might die suddenly. Lucy absorbed this fear
unconsciously, and had frequent health problems and insecurities throughout her life.
Hannah had an underlying sense of fear and insecurity that seemed unrelated to any

trauma or abuse. It manifested as an excessive clinging to security and hoarding of
possessions. Her parents had fled to this country during World War II under great
duress and danger. Her mother was traumatized by the experience, even though it was
rarely mentioned among the family. Hannah could remember her mother waking up with
nightmares and coming to her for comfort. Her mother was fanatical about locking doors
and maintaining provisions for emergencies, and lived with a sense of fear about
Hannah's future. Inadvertently, she passed her fear onto her daughter.
It is possible to inherit first chakra issues from our parents without any direct abuse to
ourselves. Parents with war trauma, poverty issues, racial persecution, those who are
holocaust survivors, who have lost a previous child, or have unresolved survival issues
of any kind (including the ability to be fully in their own bodies) might unconsciously
pass their fears on to their children. This will most likely result in attitudes and beliefs
about the world's danger, rather than physical manifestations. Still, this can contaminate
the underlying ground of being with an unidentifiable layer of fear and distrust that
eventually becomes part of the bodily experience.
Poor Boundaries

We can interfere with embodiment by not permitting boundaries to form — or by not
permitting boundaries to unform. Either way, we can discourage our future, our self-
forming.

STANLEY KELEMAN

Boundaries can be a mystery to those who have been deprived of nurturing, continuity,
and safety. A client of mine who had grown up in an orphanage could not comprehend
the purpose or need for any boundaries at all. His pain of separation and desire to
merge were so intense that the whole concept of boundaries was loathsome to him. As
a result, he repeatedly invaded others' boundaries and eventually wound up in jail with
charges of child molesting.

When our own boundaries are not functioning, the world will provide them for us. Others
will reject us, police will jail us, illness will confine us. We will pair up with people who
have overly rigid boundaries and who will continually throw us back on ourselves.
However, if lower chakra needs have been properly met, then we are not afraid to set
appropriate boundaries. We have the ability to say "enough food," "enough drink," or
"enough of this nonproductive relationship." We can withdraw, secure in the knowledge
that our own roots will support us. We are not dependent on others. If our needs were
not satisfied in the first chakra, then we are afraid to set limits — still seeking at any cost
the merging and contact that we were denied, never experiencing the satisfaction of
"enough."

When a person is not allowed to have their own ground but must serve the survival
needs of the family, then boundaries do not form. This is the background of the
codependent who may have had to care for Mommy in her illness, Daddy in his
drunkenness, or the younger siblings while the parents worked. When these duties
become necessary for survival, then survival is equated with no boundaries. The child
grows up with a pragmatic contradiction because in today's world, survival most
definitely requires boundaries.

Upper Chakra Dominance

Experiences that threaten survival intensify the upward movement of energy in the
body. When the body is neither safe nor comfortable, the child redirects her attention
away from the unpleasant experience and cuts off bodily sensations. The downward,
grounding current is inhibited as much as possible, directing most of the energy to the
head. Such a person may be physically numb and fail to notice when she needs to eat

or rest, both of which are first chakra maintenance programs. As a result she may
contract frequent illnesses — listening to the body only when it is yelling too loud to be
ignored. She may not read emotions clearly (since emotions have bodily sensations)
and consequently be unaware of her needs. A person with an accelerated upward
current is hypervigilant to messages outside of herself, as if constantly searching for
ways to connect with her caretaker or constantly watching for danger. This is the
hallmark of a deficient first chakra: the body is deadened and the consciousness is
elevated, creating a profound mind-body split.

An adult with damaged ground is usually plagued by a terrible sense that something is
wrong, but cannot identify what it is. Ground is so basic and structured so young, that it
literally becomes background. We are seldom aware that our ground is infertile soil,
muddy landslide, or impenetrable rock. Like a fish who does not know it is in water, our
ground is often invisible to us. As a result, a therapist working with this problem may feel
confused about the issue and be led away from it, just as the client's own energy has
led them away from their ground. The sessions may be highly intellectual, jump from
topic to topic, or contain lies and omissions that cover up the true problem. Learning to
develop the downward current of the body and literally building a ground just as one
would build a foundation — brick by brick — is what is needed for the top-down structure
in which the upper chakras dominate.

OBJECTIFYHQ THE BODY

The neurotic ego dominates the body, the schizoid ego denies it, while the
schizophrenic ego dissociates from it.

ALEXANDER LOWEN

One of my clients constantly referred to her body as "this thing she dragged around with
her." Another worried about her figure to the point of obsession, trying to make it look
just like the models. Another, who was a dancer, said, "I get so mad at my body when it
doesn't perform the way it's supposed to."

The body can be an alien entity to the person whose first chakra is damaged, seen as a
static thing rather than a living statement of the soul. Alienation from the body results in
objectifying the body, which means seeing it as an object, like a puppet master sees his
puppet.

Women in this culture often regard their body as a thing even if they suffered no abuses
as children. As Susan Kano writes in Making Peace with Food, "It is only through
extensive and continual conditioning that an intelligent human being comes to see
herself as an ornament, whose first priority is the attainment of a slender body, rather
than as a complete human being who has a myriad of other concerns and unlimited
potential. "3 As we objectify ourselves and each other, we come to see the body as a
thing to be controlled and maintained, rather than as a living, dynamic statement of who
we are.

Other Chakra Imbalances

When the first chakra is damaged, it reflects in each of the other chakras. Sexuality is
affected, as it is an experience of the body, of the senses, and of contact and
connection; one's sense of personal power is affected because we cannot fight or
defend ourselves without ground to stand on. Without roots bringing energy and
nourishment up from the earth, we are weak. Relationships are adversely affected by
the lack of boundaries and a persistent insecurity that needs constant reassurance.
Communication may be blocked by fear, or become excessive and disconnected from
feeling.

The upper chakras are more likely to be intensified with an elaborate and creative
imagination and a dedication to the intellect as a defense against feeling. In extremes,
such intensification can cause confusion, vagueness, or a feeling of going crazy. The
answer lies not in curtailing consciousness, but in grounding and embodying that

consciousness.

CHARACTER STRUCTURE

The Schizoid:
Creative am> Intelligent

The schizoid defense is an emergency mechanism for coping with a danger to life and
sanity. In this struggle all mental faculties are engaged in the fight for survival. Survival
depends upon the absolute control and mastery of the body by the mind.

ALEXANDER LOWEN

The Schizoid character structure is also called the Creative, because of its high degree
of intelligence, creativity, and interest in spiritual matters. This structure develops early
in life, even in the womb, where a child may be conceived by a fearful, angry, or
unwilling mother whose emotions are transmitted to the child. This structure can also be
seen as the unwanted childA (see figure 1.1). If the mother is fearful or resistant to
being pregnant, her muscles will contract and the womb will be tight around the fetus.
The growing child does not get a sense of freedom, safety, or being wanted. She
contracts her own being even as she is physically growing at a rate faster than any
other time. Contraction becomes a normal way of being, an energetic statement of
withdrawal from life.

Figure 1.1. Schizoid Character Structure (Creative)
The Unwanted Child

fiht

CHAK«A

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SECOND
CHAKIA

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THUD
CHAKRA

fOUftTH
CHAKIA

Tnu.nu in
early life

Our of touch
with feeling,
sensation

of body

Upward current
strong, giving
irnpressson 01

lots of enerjjjy

Fein
hnnnu^y .

Doubts right
to be her*,
right to exist

Feelings ire
intellects alized.
may be distorted,
irregular

Downward
current weai,
little focus

Aloof, distant

linrrgy pulled

upward
timjrd hi'.id

[ jl ki trust in
relationships,
especially
physically

irregular bums
of energy, highly
nrrvouj, excitable,

Armored
again*!
dependency

Body Contracted
and compressed

Poor physical
bonding

Functions
poorly under
pressure

Lick of
self-love

Body parts Tee!
*e pi rate

Poor sense of
nurturing.

Feel*
powcririi

Not dcitionvtrative
or affectionate.

Movement
tti et h sin i C ill

Movements
1 1 v*y pcjc*fty h
not fluid

Poor

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toward paranoia

Fea«

l>rt trusts
own body

FIFTH
CHAOA

SIXTH
CHAKtA

StVtNTH
CHAM A

Highly talkative
but chaotic ;

may jump from
topic to topic

Imaginative

Wilhdrivrs to
spirit world, may

U_ , _- L_ L _

rsyenic

Kccpt ^pc h
going to feel iafe

Intuitive

Highly intelligent

Energy discharged
Through throat

Able to think in
archetype* and
symbols, loves
the abstract

ISnlkjiil, innovative
thinkers, not bound
to old forms

May interrupt

Visually aware
(hypemgilafii),
aenve tanusy
Life

Qifficylry lurming,
incorporating new
information

Perceptive

Highly creative.,
artistic

If the mother has pulled away from her own body, she will have difficulty transmitting a
healthy sense of ground to her child. She may not touch the infant enough, which is the
basic affirmation of the child's existence. Since the body is not affirmed, the creative
character questions her right to be here, the first of our seven rights. Creative types do
not feel they have the right to take up space or attend to their physical needs. They tend
to deny their own bodies, ignoring signals of hunger, thirst, or fatigue. This can also
happen when a mother is overtired, ill, or burdened with too many children, even if her
children are wanted. Without proper support, the mother cannot give the important
grounding that her child needs during the first year of life.

Mary, whom we met earlier in the chapter, had a Schizoid/Creative character structure.
She was tall, thin, and wiry. Her eyes were wide open as if frozen in a startle response.
She was nervous, shaky, and highly energized, even prone to manic attacks. She slept
and ate very little, and had been diagnosed at one time as anorexic. When asked to
draw a picture of her body (which was a difficult exercise for her) she drew a rope coiled
tightly around her torso like a boa constrictor. Her torso moved very little, and was

collapsed at the chest (see this page, Schizoid Character).

She was especially blocked at the throat, which she constantly cleared as she spoke.
Her speech was hurried and frightened, yet she did a lot of writing that revealed her
highly sensitive and intelligent mind. She was capable of great insights and perceptions
and missed very little of what went on around her. Her upper chakras were highly
developed while her lower chakras had very little energy. She was out of touch with her
body. She had not had a sexual partner for many years. She felt powerless in most
areas of her life. She lived alone, spent much time alone, and had acquaintances but no
close friends.

Mary's energetic process was fragmented. She preferred to stay in the realm of
conversation, where she felt safe, and jumped from topic to topic. She told me she felt
she had "not participated in her own life," and as she began to heal, she at first
scattered her energy through too many activities, afraid to invest in any one thing. Since
her body was constricted, she had difficulty handling too much charge or excitement. If
this occurred, she would become confused by the upward current of energy
overcharging the upper chakras and flooding her with too much information without a
way to sort it out. The limiting and grounding aspects of the lower chakras were not
available to her, as she basically lived in fear.

I gave Mary assignments in self-care, oriented toward basics like eating and sleeping. I
recommended that she get a massage each week, take walks frequently, and indulge in
pleasurable things like long, hot baths. As she was unable to experience her body as a
whole, single organism, we worked to reclaim it piece by piece. I used the asset of her
creativity in drawing, and had her engage in movement that expressed what she drew.
This gave her a feel for the connection between her body and her body image. I helped
her experience and adjust her boundaries, moving them from the withdrawn space deep
within her to something she could place around her for a feeling of safety. I helped her
break the habit of constriction by pushing against me while I held a pillow, energetically
pushing out from within. I was careful to avoid overcharging as her body could not
handle it. Instead, we worked with grounding exercises and gentle, safe, physical
exploration.

Gradually Mary learned to pay attention to her body. In an ongoing therapy group, she
slowly learned to trust more people and open up to them. She learned to value herself
and reclaim her right to be here. She began getting involved in activities that brought
personal satisfaction. Her process of recovery went through many turns and stages, but
once begun, she could no longer continue the self-denial that had been her pattern for
over forty years. She was now participating in her own life.

EXCESS AND DEFICIENCY

Determining excess and deficiency within the chakra in question is a necessary

assessment to make before using most of the exercises. An excessive chakra will
benefit most from relaxing or discharging exercises, while a deficient chakra will benefit
from stimulating or charging exercises.

Charge is a bioenergetic word for the body's basic excitement. We feel charge when
we are angry, excited, sexually aroused, scared, in love, or any of a number of intense
emotional states. We feel charge whenever our survival is threatened, when we get a
profound spiritual connection, when we watch an exciting movie, or when we are
creating a work of art. Charge can be felt as intensity, enthusiasm, or heightened
awareness. Issues from our childhood hold a lot of charge, some positive and some

negative. For children of alcoholics or divorced parents, holidays are often charged with
anxiety. We become hypersensitive to issues that have a lot of charge and we may
overreact or compulsively avoid such situations. Positive experiences hold charge too.
We may get a charge of energy from seeing an old friend, getting a promotion, or
remembering a good vacation.

Charge can be invoked through grounding exercises, increased breathing, fantasy,
visualization, or talking about charged material. Dream images may hold a lot of charge,
and this charge may spontaneously arise in the body as one discusses his dream. Truth
also has a charge, especially when it has been previously hidden, as if a gate opens in
the body.

Increasing charge increases one's awareness of the body by increasing its aliveness. If
a person is depressed, or his body seems weak or unformed, increasing the charge can
give him a sense of well-being, and is a fairly safe process. Depression is basically a
state of undercharge, a lack of excitement or enthusiasm.

Not all charge is pleasurable however. When a body is rigidly compressed, as it is in the
Schizoid/Creative structure, increased charge may be felt as anxiety. Chronic muscular
tension is designed to defend against charge, as a way of avoiding or dispelling
unwanted feelings. In this case, one must be careful not to overcharge or load the body
with more energy than it has the capacity to safely handle. When one is overcharged,
he may feel anxious, restless, scared, or out of control. Excess charge of this type is
experienced as stress (see figure 1 .2).

An excessive jirst chakra draws so
much energy that it cannot move
the energy downward to ground,
or upward to the rest of the body.
This creates excess solidity that
has trouble embracing change.

A deficient first chakra is so con-
tracted that energy moving inward is
deflected and dispersed randomly
throughout the body, without
grounding. This Creates chaotic
movement with little consistency .

Figure 1.2. First Chakra Excess and Deficiency

Deficiency

A deficient first chakra is contracted, vacant, weak, sloppy, or unformed. This is usually
recognizable by simply looking at the body. Contraction pulls inward, as if the person
were trying to make himself as small as possible. He may sit cross-legged and hunched
over, with arms pulled inward across his body, making tight, small movements. In
assessing contraction, it is important to see if you can determine its center. A person
may be contracting his energy upward into his head, backward into his solar plexus or
heart area, or occasionally downward into his ground.

If the contraction pulls away from the ground, the first chakra becomes empty and
vacant and the person may be totally out of touch with feeling in this area. If a person's
energy is very disorganized, the first chakra will be weak and disappear at the slightest
challenge. It may appear to be grounded at times and not at others. The person may
shift his position constantly as if fidgeting, or move from foot to foot while standing.

There is a restlessness to the energy in general, often with difficulty concentrating.
There is also a kind of deficiency that may appear in either a thin body or with a large,
overweight one (which would seem like an excess) where the body is very loose and
unformed. Since the first chakra is about solidity, the unformed body has a hard time
solidifying itself or holding its shape, ground, or basic structure. There is poor muscle
tone, circulation, color, and boundary formation. This is a state that is undernourished
and undercharged.

A person with a deficient first chakra does not recognize the body's importance.
Grooming and hygiene may be poor; dressing may be sloppy. Details about life are not
important, whereas fantasies, dreams, knowledge, and spirituality are very important
(balanced by upper chakra dominance).

Deficient first chakra types need to discover their ground. They respond well to working
while standing and using exercises that charge the body (see Grounding Exercise, this
page). They need encouragement to form themselves and maintain that form, which
can be strengthened through challenge. Boundary exercises are very useful.
Excess

An excessive first chakra feels heavy. It has solidity, but with a sluggish and massive
feeling. The body is more likely to be large and dense, with excess weight distributed
especially around the hips, thighs, and buttocks. The weight itself is solid and thick
rather than loose and flabby. If there is no weight problem, you may find that the
muscles are hard and rigid.

The body is quite solidly formed and seems resistant to change. The person may not
move his body very often in the session (whereas the deficient may shift constantly) and
the eyes are defensive, with the head held steady. He may complain about being stiff,
sluggish, bored, afraid of change, or unable to get off the ground. There may be a
hardness about the person's character. He likes routine, security, and possessions, and
may be driven toward financial achievement. He may appear cynical about spiritual
subjects, preferring the concrete. His appearance may be meticulous, well-dressed, and
well-groomed. Movements, when they occur, may be repetitive or compulsive. His
boundaries are overformed, more like brick walls. He complains about being stuck.
Excessive first chakra types need to discharge, let go, and shift from excessive stability
to movement and flow. Since energy is fixated at the base of the spine, movement is
needed to distribute the energy more effectively and leave the first chakra in better
balance. Physical movements such as dancing, walking, swimming, or simply stretching
are usually successful with the excessive first chakra because the physical realm is one
that is familiar and comfortable. Yoga is especially recommended, as it allows for
peaceful relaxation and subtle movement of energy within.
Balance

A balanced first chakra is solidly grounded yet dynamically alive. There is both flexibility
and consistency, an ease with both expansion and contraction. There is a sense of form
without rigidity, a feeling of bodily comfort, and a healthy distribution of energy
throughout. This gives a sense of inner security, good self-care, an affirmed right to be
here, and a strong sense of presence.

I am often asked if a chakra can be simultaneously excessive and deficient. This
actually happens quite frequently, where some coping strategies overcompensate while
other aspects are avoided. This is an attempt to balance the energy within a chakra,
rather than throughout the system as a whole, a chakra balanced within itself is less
likely to affect other chakras in the system than a chakra that manifests one-sided
patterns. We integrate by bringing the extremes back toward a common center,
anchored in the physical body. For example, overeating is often an attempt to ground
the body. By increasing the function that is underdeveloped (in this case, appropriate
grounding) we create a possibility for the compensating function to decrease.

Assessing Your History

Uncovering developmental life experiences can also shed light on a given chakra's
structure. What is known about one's birth, breast-feeding, or early infancy? What else
was going on in the family at that time? Were there any major illnesses, surgeries, or
hardships? What kind of bonding and nurturing carne from the mother? How did the
mother relate to her own body? Were there any threats to one's survival or the survival
of family members? And how were these factors addressed? Using common sense,
these questions usually reveal excessive and deficient strategies.
Neglect and rejection usually result in deficiency, where not enough energy comes into
the system to form a solid foundation. Stressful situations, smothering, or numerous
challenges are more likely to result in excess. The ground needs to hold on for dear life
in order to survive and therefore overcompensates. It is possible, however, that the
same situation can produce equal and opposite reactions in two different
people — physical abuse may send one person completely out of touch with her body,
while another becomes overly focused on it.

Persistent problems are examples of the processes in place. "My health is a constant
problem." "I can't seem to get going." "I'm afraid all the time." "My finances are always
deplorable." These can usually be sorted into problems of excess or deficiency.
Compare these statements with the chart at the beginning of the chapter for more help
assessing your own processes.

RESTORING THE LOTUS

Healing the First Chakra

The following is an outline of suggestions, techniques, and interventions for addressing
first chakra imbalances. I want to stress that each technique should be used with
discretion and in combination with your own therapeutic style. No two people are alike,
and the space here is not adequate for elaborate diagnosis.

It is first important to determine the state of a person's connection with their body, the
ground beneath them, and the environment around them. The shape and form of the
body and the characteristic style of connection with the outside world are where we find
clues. Careful observation of the way a person walks, talks, moves, breathes, sits, and
looks out from behind their eyes tells us about the underlying patterns. Here we are
looking at the body's statement of inner process — such as contraction, expansion,
conflict, freezing, collapse, activation, deadening, or dissociation.
Notice that these are energetic statements rather than emotional states, even though
they are caused and often accompanied by emotions, such as fear resulting in
contraction, helplessness in collapse, excitement or anger in activation. These states
will change according to what is going on at the moment. Describing a past trauma may
bring activation into some parts of the body.

In first chakra work, however, the energetic statement made by the body is more
important than the emotion itself. Keeping the person in touch with bodily sensations
rather than focusing on the emotions helps provide containment for difficult, traumatic
material. The person can focus on what her body is doing without getting lost in the
feelings, which are more characteristic of the second chakra. This is done through
constant reference to and mirroring of the physical processes that are experienced
during the session. "When you feel scared, what does your body do? What happens in
your belly, or your breathing?" A person can learn to gain some relief from painful
emotions simply by changing their physical expression, without tumbling down the
labyrinth of historical content and emotional soup. A simple grounding suggestion can
also bring greater strength and calm, such as "What happens when you put your feet
back down on the floor and press your weight into them?" "What happens when you

stand up?"

DRAWING THE BODY

I find it useful to have clients draw their own body on a large piece of newsprint with an
assortment of colored crayons. The instructions given are to draw what your body feels
like without trying to make a realistic picture of it. A pencil-thin anorexic may draw her
body as a puffy balloon if that is the way she experiences it. A rigid person may draw
dark squares and hard angles. A fearful, contracted person may draw a very tiny body,
using only a quarter of the page, where an overly expanded person may need several
sheets of paper. An underformed, collapsed person may draw ethereal swirls with no
concrete form at all.

The beauty of this exercise is that it shows graphically, without intellectualization, what
is going on energetically. The client can look at her own picture and see forms that
normally remain unconscious. After first asking the client to talk about her drawing, the
therapist can then ask questions and point out overlooked aspects such as, "What does
this heavy black line going through your middle section represent to you?" "I notice your
drawing looks very fluid but has no boundaries. Does this fit your life?" "It seems you
are afraid to take up space." "You draw the body as if it were very fat, but you are
actually very thin." Sometimes whole parts of the body get left out — how does the client
relate to these parts? One person left out her head because she ran out of room on the
page and was afraid to ask for another piece of paper. Does she often lose her head out
of fear of asking for what she needs? Another person used three sheets of very large
paper (24 by 36 inches) but made only a very few pale marks. Her energy was too
diffuse.

If possible, have the client stand before a full-length mirror and hold her drawing in front
of her torso. This has the effect of giving a kind of X-ray vision into the internal schema
of the energetic structure. How does she feel about this person? What conclusions
would she draw if she saw only the picture? What are the areas that most need
attention and healing? If there is no mirror in the office, give this as a home assignment.
As people grow and change, they can make these pictures periodically, providing a
graphic representation of their progress.

BODY DIALOG

The first step out of dissociation is to reestablish communication with the body. This
exercise gives voice to various parts of the body and allows the mind to dialog with
these parts and learn about their experience.

I usually begin by having the person lay down in a relaxed, comfortable position while I
sit beside her with a pad and pencil, ready to write down everything that is said. I first
ask her to pretend that her body is a corporation and that she is a visiting consultant,
sent to interview the workers about how they each feel about their job and their position
in the company. Each body part is a member of the corporation, and I ask her to work
her way from the feet to the face. After I name a part of the body the client begins with "I
am my feet and I ..." and then completes the sentence with their emotional experience.
"I am my feet and I feel like the weight of the world is on me." "I am my belly and I feel
afraid." "I am my head and I run the show." Sometimes one part of the body may wish to
tell a whole story, linking several statements. Other times it may not be able to find its

voice, or it may feel numb.

re an alive body, no one can tell you how to experience the world. And no one can
u what truth is, because you experience it for yourself. The body does not lie.

STANLEY KELEMAN

When the whole body has had a chance to speak, I then read back what I have written,
omitting the actual body parts. "I feel the weight of the world is on me. I feel afraid. I am
running the show. I feel numb, tense." The client then gets a chance to see how the
body is expressing her life experience.

Following this exercise (which usually comprises a whole session) one can then go

back and have dialog with the parts that seem most significant. "So you, chest, feel
constricted and empty. What would make you feel fuller?" "So, stomach, you feel like
you have to be big to get noticed. How does it feel being big and full? How does it feel
when you're empty?" The stomach might answer, "It feels scary when I'm empty. But I
feel numb when I'm full." Then the question might be, "What do you feel scared of?"
The dialog can occur between the client and herself, or between the therapist and the
client. The goal is to develop a relationship through communication and
acknowledgment — a relationship that can then lead to action and change.

AFFIRM THE PHYSICAL

The first chakra represents our physical reality. When it is damaged, our relationship to
the physical world is damaged. Therefore, in cases of both excess and deficiency,
healing occurs through creating a new relationship with the physical — with our bodies,
the earth, and our surroundings. This can be an act of reunion or an exploration of a
marvelous mystery.

For the Schizoid structure with a deficient first chakra, touch and nurturing are crucial for
developing a relationship with the body that is affirming and pleasurable. Regular
massage and physical exercise are indispensable. Massage helps break down
contracted body armor while simultaneously providing a nurturing and pleasurable
experience. Exercise actually pumps energy through the body and develops strength,
promoting a sense of connection and pride. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The body-ego, owing to its direct openness to the Dynamic Ground, is energized
throughout by the power of the Ground. The body-ego's entire physical being is
electrically charged, which means that any of its bodily limbs, parts, or "zones," upon
being caressed or manipulated, can become a seat of somatic ecstasy.

MICHAEL WASHBURN

As stated earlier, it is important to continually refer the client to his bodily experience.
"What happens in your belly when you talk about this incident?" "Can you feel the
change in your breathing whenever you speak about your mother?" If the client reports
that he feels nervous or scared or angry, encourage him to anchor these feelings in the
body by asking him to describe their physical sensations. "What do you feel in your
body when you're nervous?" The answer might be, "I get butterflies in my stomach, my
breath gets shallower, I tighten my shoulders."

Every feeling has a physical sensation. Once the physical response is clarified, the
feeling can be deepened by exaggerating that response or lessened by creating an
equal and opposite response. One might say, "Tighten your shoulders and constrict
your breath even more." Intensifying the feeling can help bring it from the unconscious
into conscious awareness, where it can be reclaimed, examined, or expressed. This is
especially crucial when working with body numbness, where the physical sensations
have to be exaggerated in order to be noticed.

A negative feeling can be lessened by instructing the client in an opposite movement.
For example, Joanie, who was physically abused as a child, has an unconscious
response to painful material, which is to draw her legs up into her body and bring her
knees close to her chest. When asked to exaggerate this, she curls into a ball as if to
hide. As she does this, she feels intense fear, which she recognizes as a frequent
feeling from childhood. To encourage her to uncurl, I ask her to deepen her breathing,
put her feet on the ground, and then push down into her feet. This encourages an
opposite reaction that creates an entirely different feeling. This gives Joanie a sense of
her ground and a place from which to affirm a new way of being in her body.
Sometimes, changing body movements in this way evokes a cathartic release, which
may or may not be advisable, depending on the level of trauma. One needs to proceed
carefully. If the trauma is severe, activating a release may overwhelm the system,
especially if the grounding is weak. If grounding has been adequately developed during
previous sessions, with a strong sense of trust in the therapeutic relationship, then

gentle release may bring relief by discharging the feelings held in the body armor and
allowing new feeling to enter.

In order for Joanie to maintain this grounded position and feel comfortable with it, she
needs to reorganize her usual way of handling things. It is not as easy to retreat
energetically when the feet are planted firmly on the floor. To support the new structure,
she must instead confront, say no, get angry, or defend. This response needs to be
encouraged, but from a bodily position that supports it in small, manageable steps.
The emotional and physical structures are interdependent. Change in the physical
structure helps support a new emotional response, and change in emotional expression
helps support new physical postures. Both sides must be worked simultaneously, but
emotions are more appropriate to the realm of the second chakra, so we will focus here
on the physical.

WORK ON THE FEET

We connect to our ground through our feet and legs. Working on the feet can imply two
things: working directly with the feet themselves, as in foot massage, flexing and
arching, kicking, or pushing with the feet (see my book The Sevenfold Journey for
more physical exercises) or working while standing on the feet (literally getting on one's
own two feet).

As I begin grounding work with the feet, I ask the client to remove his shoes and socks
and stand on a tennis ball or a footsie roller to open up the muscles in the feet. The
client stands on one foot while pressing the other into the tennis ball, applying enough
weight to loosen tension. A footsie roller is a wooden dowel with ridges sold at many
natural food stores or health spas. The footsie roller is harder than the tennis ball but
penetrates more deeply. Sometimes I have the client walk across a plain wooden
dowel, about the size of a closet bar, moving his feet one inch at a time. This last
exercise can be quite painful to the feet if there is a lot of blocked energy, so I only use
it when working on more advanced stages of grounding.

Unfortunately, most psychotherapy occurs as a verbal dialog, sitting in a chair, and is
essentially nonphysical. This is clearly not the best approach for someone who wants to
work on lower chakra issues, especially if their cognitive faculties are overdeveloped as
a defense. In this kind of situation there are still some simple things that can be done to
support grounding. At the very minimum, one can teach a client to keep his feet on the
ground, preferably with shoes off. This helps him maintain a deeper energetic
connection to his body and a greater presence in the session. This is essential for
people who have grounding problems (which, in reality, is most of the population).
Asking the client to occasionally press into his feet reaffirms and strengthens the
grounding connection and is especially useful when dealing with fear and nervousness.
Pressing into the feet helps push energy through the body where it can be released.
The client can be asked to continually monitor his bodily experience as explained
earlier. Exercises that involve drawing the body or speaking for body parts as if they
were subpersonalities, and assigning body-supportive homework, are essential adjuncts
to working with the first chakra.

Once the feet have been opened up, I ask the person to stand and experience them in a
whole new way. I ask him to feel his feet holding up the body's weight and to feel the
texture of the floor beneath. Most are astonished at how much more awareness they
have of their feet and immediately feel a bit more grounded.

Doing psychological work while standing increases the body's energy, allows greater
assertiveness, overcomes passivity, and supports independence. The mere act of
standing is an assertion of autonomy. Standing takes one out of the baby stage and
allows the adult to emerge. Standing establishes a ground, and literally manifests the
metaphor "to take a stand." Many of our expressions reflect this important energetic
concept: "to put one's foot down," "to have a leg to stand on," "to refuse to stand for
something," "to withstand," and finally, "to understand." Having a client stand on his feet

embodies any and all of these concepts. In this case, the stand he takes is for himself.
Careful attention is also paid to the way in which he stands. Is the pelvis tipped forward
or held back? Are the knees flexible or locked? Does the belly hang forward or the chest
collapse? These are all indications of the client's holding pattern and should be noted
and worked with over time. It helps to explore both conscious and unconscious body
postures. Conscious body posture is the one we have when we are watched. We hold in
our stomach, lift our shoulders and chest, and straighten our spine. Unconscious body
posture is the one that happens without thinking. We may slump, tighten, or stand
habitually on one leg.

How does the client feel when trying to ground? Does it make him feel jittery or secure?
Is there a focus of tension that occurs in the body or does the body relax? Does it
require much concentration or does it come naturally? Do the eyes express excitement,
fear, or sadness? These are the things to ask about and observe, or to offer as
feedback to the client. "Your eyes are suddenly showing fear, is that what you're
feeling?" Next direct that identification to the body. "So what sensation in your body lets
you know you're afraid and when did this sensation start to occur?" Other questions or
statements might include: "What do you experience in this position?" "Your pelvis is
pulled backward. What happens if you allow it to move forward?" "It seems you have a
need to lock your knees. What happens when you bend them?" These statements are
not designed to be analytical as much as to invite deeper experience. Look for breaks in
the flow of energy, places that are held stiffly, or parts that move awkwardly. Then focus
and exaggerate these unconscious processes until they become conscious.
Locking the knees is a way to throw the body into passive weight, where we withdraw
energetically while still giving the outer appearance of being present. Passive weight
can also be thought of as dead weight — locking the knees cuts down on the energetic
connection between the legs and the ground and deadens bodily sensations. When the
knees are locked, the belly pushes forward, the chest collapses, the head falls
downward, and the breathing lessens. This is the posture of defeat, and defeat is
allegorical to falling; therefore, we lock our knees to remain standing. The posture of
alertness, by contrast, holds the knees slightly bent and keeps the center of gravity low,
much like the stance used by martial artists. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
It is not so much the meaning of life that we seek but our aliveness. When we have that,
the meaning of life is obvious.
GROUNDING EXERCISE

To increase the sense of dynamic contact with the ground, I ask the client to place his
feet shoulder width apart with toes slightly inward and knees slightly bent. Sometimes I
tell him to push into his feet as if trying to part the floorboards, increasing leg solidity. A
person cannot easily be pushed off their ground when holding a position like this.
Asking him to maintain this position while the therapist pushes slightly on the sternum
requires him to dig his feet into the floor, which increases the energy in the legs.
Once the basic position is established, I then ask him to bend and straighten his knees
several times slowly, inhaling while bending and exhaling while straightening and
pushing them into the floor. The knees should not straighten all the way. If this exercise
is done correctly, a mild trembling in the legs will begin. With some people this takes
only seconds, with others several minutes. The trembling is a sign that new energy is
coming into the legs and feet. If the exercise is continued, this energy will gradually
increase and the trembling will become stronger. As it does, it can be used to enliven
parts of the body that are deadened and move through blocks, or it can be passed
upward to the rest of the body. Every time we push against something solid, we
increase energy flow in our body. Increased contact with the ground builds up charge.
One must be careful to observe how the client deals with the increased charge. If
anxiety arises, which it often does, it must be either processed or curtailed. It can be

curtailed by slowing down or stopping the exercise, kicking the legs into the air in front,
or sitting in a chair with the head lowered. It can be processed by working with the
material it illuminates. Sally, for example, got very anxious during her first grounding
experience. This was observable through her eyes and breathing, and through
elucidating frequent descriptions of her experience.
"I'm getting very uncomfortable," she said.

"Fine, let's hold the position right there and see what the discomfort is about. What are
the sensations in your body?"

"I'm getting a tingling in my hands and lips." (This is not an uncommon response to
charge.)

"OK. Pay attention to your hands. What do they want to do? What is their impulse?"
"I don't know. I can't tell. I feel confused."

I could see the arms trembling, as if locked in place. "Try reaching forward with your
arms. Reach out in front of you." Sally reached out in front and the charge ran up her
torso and out her hands. She began to sob. The sense of anxiety changed and she was
suddenly immersed in the memory of wanting to reach for her mother when her mother
was not there. She was able to express her feelings of sadness and her inhibition
around reaching out. I allowed her to grab my hands and feel a solid contact with
someone. The end result was a feeling of calm.

In this case, anxiety arose from the confusion she felt about her instinctual (core)
response to needing someone when they were not there, a response that had been
shut off for lack of satisfaction. In other cases, it may not be resolved so simply. My rule
is to take the person as far as she can handle, and only push when I feel confident there
is a possibility of some resolution within the session. I determine this by intense
observation and constant dialog that keeps me in touch with both her physical and
emotional states.

As a person begins to resolve the issues brought to light by the exercises, the
grounding gains solidity. She is literally resolving that which has stood between herself
and her ground. As this occurs, problems with jobs, housing, and physical ailments — all
first chakra issues — begin to resolve.
REGRESSIVE TECHNIQUES

Since the first stages of life are preambulatory, not all first chakra work can be done
while standing. If there are traumas that occurred in the earliest stages of childhood, it
may be necessary to use postures that simulate these earlier stages.
Rebirthing techniques are done while laying down and use certain kinds of breathing to
trigger memories of the womb and birth experience. Holotropic breath work (created by
Stanislav Grof) is a technique that releases deep tensions held in the body. These are
not techniques that can be adequately described here, but one might want to refer a
client to a trained rebirther or holotropic breath worker for a few sessions to access
material from these early stages. These methods are very powerful however, and
should not be used lightly with a client who has serious trauma or with one whose
history you do not yet know well.

When doing work with early childhood stages, I have the client lie down on his back, on
a fold-out futon, keeping the knees bent so that the feet are flat against the foam. I then
facilitate relaxation and encourage deeper breathing, watching closely for signs of
energetic changes or blocks. The following exercise, pushing the feet, pushes energy
down into the legs.

I ask the client to raise his legs into the air and wave them around, much as an infant
might. I also encourage him to make abstract sounds as he breathes — easy for some
and difficult for others. The sounds help the client to surrender to the movement of
energy, but are not a focus at this time.

I then ask him to push outward with his feet with the toes flexed back toward the body.

As the client pushes into his heels, the legs will soon begin to vibrate just as they would
in the standing position, and I encourage them to surrender to this trembling and to
continue breathing fully. After building up the charge, I ask the client to kick his legs
rapidly in order to discharge, with knees bent for the younger stages, knees straight for
a more mature assertion. Sound is encouraged here, and if the arms seem energized,
he can also strike the mat with his hands or fists. The kicking lasts until the client is tired
(usually a minute or so) and is followed by rest.

This is an expressive charge-discharge cycle that pushes out but does not encourage
the act of taking in. It will open up the energy and get it flowing, but does not teach the
client to contain. It is good for a basic anger release and breaking up rigidity, but is not
advised for issues of abandonment, lack of nurturing, or neglect, which are softer and
quieter experiences.

Note: Many of these exercises have what I call an afterflow. This means that the
energetic flow in the body is more likely to occur immediately after the exercise than
during it. Therefore it is crucially important for the client to take a few moments of quiet
to really feel the streaming of energy in his body before moving on to something else.
For the tenderer emotions, I allow the client to begin by lying down and work with the
hands and lips. I gently massage the shoulder and back muscles and ask the client to
reach forward with his hands as if reaching for a person. I also encourage the suckling
response by asking him to push his lips outward (especially good for the Oral/Lover
structure). It rekindles the oral experience, and through renegotiation of past memories
can help satisfy the endless oral cravings. It is important to end with the client getting
slowly to his feet, feeling the ability to support himself in an active and adult way.
Some of these techniques have profound boundary implications and should not to be
used before establishing clear boundaries and a sense of safety and trust between
practitioner and client. The practitioner must stay aware of transference and
countertransference issues. I always completely describe the exercise ahead of time,
and ask the client if he feels comfortable with it before beginning, assuring him that we
can stop at any time. I do not even suggest such exercises to a client who has just
begun therapy, or to one who, in my assessment, is not good at saying no (such as
sexual abuse survivors and clients with an extreme need to please). As with any
therapeutic technique, caution and discretion are imperative.

Without the healthy functioning of the first chakra, we are hopelessly trapped on a

mundane level of existence, forever avoiding and forever dealing with the same
issue — a need to solidify the ground level from which all else grows. It is my belief that if
a person's ground is not somewhat intact, all other work is less effective. If the ground is
intact, subsequent work proceeds in a more coherent fashion and strengthens the
ground. Grounding is a slow and cumulative process. It is where we begin, yet it is
always changing as a result of what we build above it.

One can never work on grounding too much. Our culture, so very removed from the
ground of the planet, and with values that hold the body and the physical world in such
low esteem, continually separates us from our ground. Regardless of childhood
development, there is always work to be done to overcome the cultural programming
that weakens our first chakra connection.

Reclaiming the sacred temple of our bodies, our right to be here, and our right to have
what we need in order to survive can be a joyous reunion with the very ground of our

CONCLUSION

own being and a solid beginning to the exciting journey of recovery through the chakras.

CHAKRA TWO

Swimming in the Waters of Difference

SECOND CHAKRA AT A GLANCE

ELEMENT

Water
NAME

Svadhisthana (sweetness)
PURPOSE

Movement and connection

ISSUES

Movement

Sensation

Emotions

Sexuality

Desire

Need

Pleasure

COLOR

Orange

LOCATION

Lower abdomen

Sacral plexus

IDENTITY

Emotional

ORIENTATION

Self-gratification

DEMON

Guilt

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE
6 months to 2 years
DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS

Sensate exploration of the world

Locomotion

BASIC RIGHTS

To feel and have pleasure

BALANCED CHARACTERISTICS

Graceful movement

Emotional intelligence

Ability to experience pleasure

Nurturance of self and others

Ability to change

Healthy boundaries

TRAUMAS AND ABUSES

Sexual abuse (covert or overt)

Emotional abuse

Volatile situations

Neglect, coldness, rejection

Denial of child's feeling states, lack of mirroring

Enmeshment

Emotional manipulation

Overuse of playpen or restricting normal movement
Religious or moral severity (antipleasure)

Physical abuse
Alcoholic families

Inherited issues — parents who have not worked out their own issues around sexuality; untreated incest
cases

DEFICIENCY

Rigidity in body and attitudes
Frigidity, fear of sex
Poor social skills
Denial of pleasure
Excessive boundaries
Fear of change

Lack of desire, passion, excitement
EXCESS

Sexual acting out, sexual addiction
Pleasure addiction

Excessively strong emotions, ruled by emotions (hysteria, bipolar mood swings, crisis junkies)
Oversensitive

Poor boundaries, invasion of others

Seductive manipulation

Emotional dependency

Obsessive attachment

PHYSICAL MALFUNCTIONS

Disorders of reproductive organs, spleen, urinary system

Menstrual difficulties

Sexual dysfunction: impotence, premature ejaculation, frigidity, nonorgasmic
Low back pain, knee trouble, lack of flexibility
Deadened senses, loss of appetite for food, sex, life
HEALING PRACTICES
Movement therapy

Emotional release or containment as appropriate
Inner child work
Boundary work

12-step programs for addictions

Assign healthy pleasures

Develop sensate intelligence

AFFIRMATIONS

I deserve pleasure in my life.

I absorb information from my feelings.

I embrace and celebrate my sexuality.

My sexuality is sacred.

I move easily and effortlessly.

Life is pleasurable.

SHADES OF ORANGE

Lose your mind and come to your senses.

FRITZ PERLS

I seldom find a client or even a friend without sexuality issues. Too little, too much,

afraid, addicted, ashamed, deprived, or compulsive — the cries of sexual wounding echo
through many lives, bringing pain and frustration, anger and fear — all to an experience
meant for pleasure. Collectively, these wounds reverberate through our culture in
struggles over a vast range of sexual issues: birth control, abortion, gay rights, nudity,
fidelity, celibacy, child molestation, rape, and pornography. In a binding paradox,
sexuality is simultaneously rejected and magnified.

This wounding takes its toll. Emotional numbness is the approved ideal for public
behavior. Emotional reactions are frowned upon as a sign of losing control. The function
of feeling, in the Jungian sense, is considered an inferior function in our culture,
associated with the inferior status of women. Passion, an essential motivating force for
vitality, power, and creativity, is suppressed, viewed as a petulant child needing to be

controlled by our will. Without passion and pleasure, our lives blur into senseless
sameness, our feelings dulled behind the daily subroutines of expected behavior.
The second chakra — center of sensation and feeling, emotion and pleasure, intimacy
and connection, movement and change — is instead turned and twisted, squashed and
squandered, further severing the perceptual cognition of the mind from the sensate
ground of the body. Without touch, we become literally out of touch. Dulled in our
senses, behavior becomes senseless instead of sensible.

In recovering the second chakra, we reclaim our right to feel. We also reclaim passion
and pleasure, neediness and vulnerability, and our sensate connection to both inner
and outer reality. We free the flow of dynamic energy that is essential for growth,
change, and transformation and release the armor that separates us. We can then
reclaim the intimacy that we long for, ending our fragmented isolation.
Sexuality and spirituality have long had a conflicted relationship. Many people see them
as polarized rivals for consciousness — that to pursue one is to deny the other. Such
philosophies tell us that to become spiritual we need to overcome desire, to renounce
sexuality, to rise above our feelings. Other practices, such as Tantra, see sexuality and
spirituality as an indivisible whole, each one enhancing the other.
To deny the qualities of the second chakra is to deny an essential piece of our
wholeness, a piece that has an important part to play in the expansion and awakening
of consciousness. To make it more or less important than the other chakras is to
unbalance the whole system. Let us honor the second chakra as an exciting and
necessary part of our journey, and in that honoring free ourselves to both enjoy it and
embrace the realms beyond it.

UNFOLDING

THE PETALS

Basic Issues of the Second Chakra
Change
Movement

Flow
Sensation
Pleasure
Emotion
Need
Desire
The Shadow
Guilt
Duality
Sexuality

Divwquttc Waters

The myth of going under water, of being drowned and born again ...the myth of
baptism ... is a darinq leap into non-beinq with the prospect of achievinq new beinc

As we enter the second chakra, we encounter the watery realm of emotions and
sexuality. Where we have worked for grounding and stability in the first chakra, we now
cultivate feelings and movement; where we have been concerned with survival and

structure, we now focus on sexuality and pleasure. Our associated element has shifted
from earth to water, from solid to liquid. In this transmutation we encounter change.
Through consistency, consciousness finds meaning; through change it finds stimulation
and expansion.

Emotional fulfillment comes from balancing the emotional flow and emotional
containment within the sensate and structural forms of the body.
If we think of the body as a vessel for the soul and spirit, then the element of earth in
chakra one provides support and containment for the fluid essence of chakra two, much
like a cup holds water. Without appropriate containment, water flows out and the cup
runs dry. With excessive containment, however, water cannot flow at all and becomes
stagnant and dull. Ideally, we want to have a cup that is capable of filling, holding, and
emptying. The task of the first chakra was to build this container. In the second chakra
we look to its contents.
Letting Goto Movement

In the first chakra, we learned to ground, stabilize, and focus. Now, in the second
chakra, our challenge is just the opposite — to let go— to flow and move, to feel, and to
yield. Movement and change stimulate consciousness. They stir the watery essence of
feelings that flow through the body. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The universe exists only through a constant dance of consistency and change. Through
consistency, consciousness finds meaning; through change it finds stimulation and
expansion. To find consistency within change is to embrace the unfolding flow.
On the physical plane, movement literally gets us up off our butts, where we rise from
the anchor of chakra one and expand outward. Through movement, we extend our field
of perception, increasing our sensory input. By moving the body, we build muscle
tissue, increase circulation, stimulate nerve endings, and generally enhance the body's
flexibility and aliveness. The flow of pleasure and excitation through the nervous system
bathes the organism in sensation and awareness. Movement has its own pleasure.
By paying attention to the way we move, we can uncover previously buried issues and
feelings. In the first chakra, the structural forms of the body gave us clues to
unconscious process. In the second chakra we observe the way these forms move and
make contact.
Sensation

The senses are the gateway between the internal and external world. Sight, sound,
touch, taste, and hearing give us a constantly changing inner matrix of the world around
us. The senses are the data input of our overall system. They allow us to connect and
give meaning to our experience. Through our senses, we differentiate between pleasure
and pain, we expand or contract, move forward or backward, react or enact. When there
is pain or emptiness, our senses shut down.

The complex combination of sensation and feeling gives us the emotional texture of
experience. Senses, as the language of feeling, form the basis of our values. How we
perceive something and how we feel about it determine our values. Without a sensual
connection to what is around us, we lose our sense of values and distinctions.
Pleasure

What do you do after completing a hard day of work? Most people try to relax and turn
toward pleasure of some kind. Once an organism has taken care of its survival needs,
the next thing on the agenda is usually pleasure. It is biologically natural to move toward
pleasure and away from pain. Pain makes us contract, withdraw, or shut down, whereas
pleasure invites us to extend, expand, and tune in to our senses. If our overall purpose
in the second chakra is to stimulate movement, then pleasure is the most inviting way to
accomplish this.1

As children, pleasure comes to us through touching and closeness, play and
stimulation, and validation of our emotional experience. Children take pleasure in being

alive and reaching out with that aliveness to encounter the world. To be met with love
and encouragement in that reaching is to meet life as a pleasurable experience.

THOMAS MOORE

Unfortunately, not all children have this luxury. My client Jennifer came from a home
where pleasure was frowned upon as an indulgent waste of time and energy. Her
mother was an overburdened single parent of five children who had to sacrifice pleasure
simply to survive. There was never enough time or money for those little extras that
bring pleasure to life. As the eldest, Jennifer was expected to shoulder adult
responsibilities. Time spent with her friends was seen as taking away from her job with
the family. She was not allowed to pursue her own pleasures. She grew up to feel she
had no right to indulgences of her own while her mother was working so hard just to
survive. To this day, even though she has a well-paying job, she can only let herself buy
clothes at the thrift store, rarely takes a vacation, and allows herself little time for sexual
pleasure. Life to her is grim, and she looks older than her years.
For Oliver, pleasure came with manipulative strings attached. Oliver was given treats of
pleasure, such as cookies, extra time watching TV, or snuggles with Mom, only when he
behaved according to his mother's needs. When he was sad, angry, or needy himself,
these treats were denied. While this may seem like a common use of reward and
punishment, Oliver now has trouble feeling his anger and expressing his needs for fear
that his wife will deny him affection, or that some unseen punishment will fall from the
sky and take away everything he values. In fact, Oliver has trouble figuring out what he
wants at all, because long ago he learned to deny his wants. Oliver feels guilty about
having pleasure in his life — always wondering if he deserves it.

For Samantha, pleasure was provided in a healthy atmosphere. She was loved and
touched without being invaded. Her body was respected and cared for. Her parents took
pleasure in her curiosity and delight and there was a spirit of fun in the household. She
has a healthy sense of pleasure. She tunes in to her body and can tell when she has
had enough. She is positive and enthusiastic about life.

How was pleasure regarded in your family? Was it frowned upon or indulged in? Did
your family take time for vacations, laugh together, and play? Was there a predominant
message that hard work and self-sacrifice were necessary for survival or the means to
spiritual fortitude? Were work and play, self-discipline and pleasure, brought into
balance? How do these attitudes reflect in your own orientation toward pleasure?
Pleasure invites us to pay attention to our senses, to live fully in the present, to enjoy
the experience of being alive. Pleasure invites us to relax, which dispels stress.
Pleasure makes us more receptive to new ideas, more enthusiastic about new tasks or
demands. Through pleasure, we extend our awareness throughout the intricate network
of nerve endings that constantly connect the inner and outer worlds through the medium
of consciousness.

Pleasure invites us to integrate something, while pain pushes us to separate and
disown. If someone or something is pleasurable to me, I am more likely to want to
explore it further, move toward it, make it part of my life. If something is not pleasurable
(as in a job that we dread) there is a tendency to avoid or deny it.
Our culture equates maturity with the ability to deny pleasure. We are often told to put
our pleasures away as we grow older — to sit still, work hard, deny or control our
feelings. Pleasures we once knew become regulated by guilt, held inside by rigidity in
the body and rigidity in our thinking. What becomes rigid also becomes brittle and
fragile. Because of its fragility, a rigid system needs to be strongly defended, and that
defense results in a closed state.

When we are constricted, the flow of the life force is limited. When we let go and flow
freely, we can literally carry more "charge" or excitement in the body. Getting the energy

to move through the body is one of the major purposes of the second chakra. Pleasure
is a primal means of inviting that flow. When pleasure is denied, an essential part of our
second chakra program never gets installed. This creates a person who is missing a
vital ingredient to wholeness but does not know what it is, how to find it, or even that it is
missing. The result is rigidity in the body and disconnection from the outer world.
We filter experience through the realm of feeling. When pleasure is denied, we disown
our right to it, we feel guilty for wanting it, ashamed of having it. Then all feelings are
subject to question. The child no longer has the screen of his own feelings to filter
incoming stimulation, and consequently loses the discriminating capacity of healthy
boundaries. The result is excessive defenses or the inability to protect oneself at all.
Boundary issues are then prevalent in each of the lower three chakras.
When primary, healthy pleasures are denied, secondary pleasures take over, such as
the pleasure of drinking, drugs, avoiding responsibility, sexually acting out, or
overeating. Since secondary pleasures cannot really satisfy our longing for primary
pleasures, our lack of satisfaction makes us crave more, forming a basis for addictions.
There is a ravenous hunger to feel good, a hunger that is never truly satisfied. Healthy
pleasure brings satisfaction; addictive pleasure brings a craving for more.
Emotions

Emotion is the chief source of all becoming conscious. There can be

C. G.JUNG

Emotions are instinctual reactions to sensory data. If the senses bring in raw
information, feelings are the unconscious reaction to this information, and emotions are
the way we organize our feelings. Without consciousness, emotions govern our
reactions. We may get angry, fall in or out of love, feel depressed or afraid, but these
emotions generally arise from the depths of our psyche quite of their own accord. We
may choose the way we respond to these emotions, but the feelings have a life of their
own.

I believe that ultimately, emotions have a spiritual function as the language of the soul.
This language is spoken through the body. We can think of sensations as the words,
feelings as the sentences, and emotions as the paragraphs. These building blocks are
the primary levels of our experience through which our story unfolds, giving us meaning.
Meaning integrates our felt sense of experiencing the world.

Most therapies focus strongly on emotions. Pervasive feelings of fear, frustration,
shame, or anxiety initiate the quest for change and the beginnings of transformation. If
we run from these emotions (something that is culturally supported) we run from the
very gateway to our transformation.

Once on our quest, emotions help unravel the story of our soul's journey. Feelings
emerge from the unconscious, from the instinctual core of the body, and move up from
the lower chakras to enter consciousness. We react in certain ways, but we do not
always know why. Feelings captivate our consciousness, fixating our attention until we
unravel their mystery. Feelings are the key to buried memories, to events that have a
significance our conscious mind may have denied. Initially, emotions are subconscious
organizations of impulses to move away from harm and toward pleasure.
It is difficult to feel emotions without some kind of movement. It's hard to hold still when
we're angry or excited. Nervousness makes us shake. Sadness can leave us heaving in
long, shaking sighs. We control emotion by freezing our body movement. We stiffen our
jaw, tighten our neck and belly, inhibit our breathing, and generally contract. Feeling the
emotion at a later time is usually accompanied by some kind of movement, a release of
the held tension, that allows us to open and expand once again. Anger is released
through hitting or kicking, fear through shaking, yearning through reaching, sadness
through sobbing.

Just as releasing emotions frees the body, the converse is also true; we can free
emotions by consciously moving the body. Reaching out may trigger buried longing and
sadness; hitting a pillow may access deeper levels of anger. The way we hold our body
tells us a lot about what kind of emotions are stored beneath our awareness.
Encouraging movement where the body is frozen helps to free the emotions and restore
aliveness and motility.
Need

Needs are necessities. They are not idle longings. I need to put gas in my car in order
for it to run. I need to have training to do a particular job. My child needs love if he is to
become emotionally balanced. These are requirements for healthy functioning.
Needs are the basic requirements of the system, necessary for it to run. They are the
nonnegotiable bottom line.

As children we are often shamed for our needs. Our parents may have been unable to
meet them, or may have had unmet needs of their own. As a result, we were taught that
they were not necessities, and we learned to disown them. One woman I worked with
could never let herself eat until she was absolutely starving, could not fill her gas tank
until she was close to empty, and could not take the next breath until she had held her
exhale empty for several moments. She saw her needs as dismissible desires,
something she should overcome. She felt guilty for having them, and tried to keep them
hidden. As a result, she kept herself deprived and depleted, unable to fill her basic
needs and move on to other things.

When we reclaim our needs, we take responsibility for our own fulfillment.

Desire is a spiritual/emotional impulse that inspires us to move to something greater, to
embrace change. If we do not desire anything, the senses shut down. We lose our
aliveness. We have no impetus to move forward. The object of desire may not be
necessary, but the feeling of desire is the soul's longing to move forward.
You are what your deep driving desire is. As your desire is, so is your will. As your will,
so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.

BRIHADARANYAKA UPANISHAD IV.4.5
Desire is often frowned upon by spiritual disciplines. We are taught that desires are a
trap, a distraction from our true path, bound to lead us astray. We are told that desires
lead to frustration and suffering and that only by denying them can we truly find God,
enlightenment, or peace. But finding God is also a desire, a longing, and a need.
Without desire, we are unable to put forth enough effort to attain what is difficult.
Without desire, we have no energy, inspiration, or seed for the will. Desire may lead to
frustration, but that frustration gives us powerful lessons for growth. Desire is not the
trap, but the fuel for action. It is the object of our desires that often gets confused.
When we understand the deeper needs behind our desires, we are more able to satisfy
ourselves at the core level.

Desire is a combination of sensation and feeling. Desire is the fuel for the will, which is
related to chakra three. It is the seed of passion and enthusiasm, essential for
developing energy and power. It is the essential thrusting forward that leads us to
action. Only by staying in touch with our feelings can we truly know our soul's desire;
only by knowing our deepest desires can our will have clarity. Otherwise, the
unacknowledged desires sabotage the will by fighting against it. This brings us to the
shadow.
The Shadow

One does not become enlighte
less conscious.

C.G.JUNG

Since the second chakra produces the first major change of consciousness, the first

experience of opposites, and represents literally, the number two, it is associated with
duality and polarity. Thus, one of the tasks of second chakra adult development is to
integrate previously polarized or one-sided aspects of our personality into an indivisible
whole. This is an essential step in our alchemical quest: the reclaiming of the shadow
and the integration of such polarities as masculine and feminine, mind and body, inner
and outer experience. As it is with Jung's individuation process, we often have to move
downward into the unconscious to pick up lost remnants of the lower chakras in order to
become whole. In the second chakra, our work is to reclaim the shadow.
The shadow represents repressed instinctual energies that are locked away in the realm
of the unconscious. They do not die or cease to function, but they are no longer part of
conscious awareness, no longer directly expressed through our conscious activity.
Consequently, they are enacted unconsciously, sometimes with great force. We may
think we never get angry but enact a passive stubbornness that infuriates others. We
may deny our own neediness, but subtly manipulate ourselves into the center of
attention.

Keeping the shadow in chains requires a great deal of energy and robs the whole of its
grace and power. Furthermore, it doesn't work. The shadow chases us in our dreams. It
sabotages our work and relationships. It energizes compulsive activities. When the
shadow is repressed we are cut off from our wholeness and from our ground. As the
instinctual energies are a large part of the child psyche, we are also removed from the
innocence and spontaneity of the inner child.

When the shadow remains unacknowledged, it is projected onto others. Like a hidden
shape over which we shine our inflated light, the shadow is seen parading shamelessly
in the behavior of those around us, while we remain righteously virtuous. Maria, who
repressed her sexuality, saw every man as trying to get sexual favors from her. Sandy's
foster mother, a benevolent leader in her church community, was punishing and
controlling at home, constantly accusing Sandy of immoral activity.
When we become polarized, we are like a magnet, drawing toward us the opposite pole.
We invariably attract those who embody our rejected shadow — as mates, bosses,
coworkers, neighbors, or children, who insinuate themselves into our lives through
relationships we cannot easily escape. If we have rejected our personal power, our boss
will be a tyrant. If we are an ever-giving codependent, we will marry someone cold and
withholding. If we are quiet and considerate, our neighbor or roommate will be noisy and
inconsiderate.

Shadow qualities are met with intense criticism and judgment as they are projected onto
others. The presence of this judgment is our clue to the shadow as a rejected self. If
sexuality is a rejected self, then overt sexuality in others will produce a highly charged
negative reaction (much like what we see in some religious sects fixated on the sexual
behavior of others). If anger is a rejected self, we will fear and criticize it in others. If we
suppress our emotions, we will have little tolerance for those who are needy, crying, or
strongly expressive. It makes us very uncomfortable to be around someone expressing
our shadow energies. Our judgment is an attempt to negate the source of our

discomfort.

Repression will always call forth a compensatory counter activity of the unconscious
which will, through the back door, force upon us the very thing we are trying to repress.

EDWARD WHITMONT

Psychologist Hal Stone suggests that this judgment arises out of the resonance
between the rejected self and the behavior of the other.2 It is hard for the unemotional,
rational type to be around someone who is emotional because it awakens his rejected
emotions. Since this aspect of his personality is not allowed expression, the stimulus
must be removed at all costs. If it's not removed, his rejected self will awaken to the
point where he can no longer keep it in check — a point that seems dangerous to the

ego's concept of self. Through judgment, we attempt to remove stimuli that might
awaken our shadow.

Reclaiming the shadow dissolves judgment, and brings greater acceptance of self and
others and restores an essential wholeness. One of my rejected selves was the slacker.
Unable to relax, I had to push myself all the time to be constantly accomplishing
something. I felt critical of those who were not working as hard as I was and judgmental
of my husband reading the Sunday paper (while I worked) — until I learned to
acknowledge how much I needed time off to sit and simply relax. My judgment of others'
laziness gave me the clue to my rejected self. Allowing myself to be lazy at times and to
relax and enjoy life eliminated my judgment of others and greatly improved my health
and relationships.

Unhealthy guilt is an autoimmune disease of the soul that causes us to literally

Reclaiming the shadow does not mean that we become thieves, killers, rapists, or
rageaholics. Such aspects are more likely to emerge when the shadow is repressed and
its energy builds to the point of taking over the conscious self. The greater the
repression, the louder our shadow has to yell to be heard and the greater its chance to
become demonic.

You can think of this in terms of bringing some fruit and a sandwich to work for lunch. In
order to keep yourself from eating too soon, you stuff the lunch in the, back of your desk
drawer and forget about it. You send it to the shadow realm, where it is out of sight, out
of mind. You get so busy you forget about it entirely until two weeks later, when an odd
smell starts coming out of your drawer and you discover this decaying piece of garbage.
It did not start out that way, but lost in the shadows it degenerated into something quite
unpleasant.

Elements of our personality can do the same thing. Without expression, they don't get to
evolve. Our childish tempers don't get to become sophisticated communication. Our
neediness doesn't get met with love and intimacy; our sexual urges become compulsive
fantasies. Our shadow elements, like rejected children, resort to more and more
extreme behavior to get attention.

Reclaiming the shadow means that we reclaim the instinctual energies of our needs and
desires so that they can be channeled in appropriate ways. It does not mean we
surrender consciousness to the shadow, but that we instead bring the shadow into
consciousness.
Guilt

Guilt is the demon of the second chakra because it curtails the free flow of movement,
largely by taking the pleasure out of it. If I feel guilty about what I am doing, I do not fully
enjoy it. I cannot fully sense the experience as one part of me is frozen off, restricting or
trying to control what I am doing. In constant struggles with my weight, I used to feel
guilty whenever I ate. As a result, I took no satisfaction from eating and I wanted to do it
again. Compulsive activities are often instincts of the pleasure principle, driven to
repetition because the guilt prevents satisfaction.

Guilt sequesters the shadow into its dark and unconscious realm. We might say that
guilt is the prison guard that keeps the shadow caged, keeping it from coming into the
light of consciousness. As a result, the caged shadow becomes even more insistent and
the prison guard must tighten his control.

Guilt polarizes the personality. It divides light against dark, good against bad. We are
wonderful one day and horrible the next, all because of something we did. The brighter
the light, the darker the shadow. The greater the guilt, the more we try to emancipate
ourselves by flawless behavior. Flawless behavior inhibits the natural flow of energy
moving up from the lower chakras and tends to polarize mind and body.

KAHLIL GIBRAN

A polarized personality is characterized by either-or thinking. Without the multiplicity of
the rainbow, we find ourselves locked in black-and-white choices. Morals taught to a
young child without a genuine sense of connection to others tend to be given in black-
and-white terms. This is good, that is bad. For young children with a limited
understanding of the world, this is quite necessary. To stay there is to remain in an
immature cognitive process.

Children who live in fear of punishment get frozen in this either-or thinking.
Understandably, they want the rules to be clear so they can behave accordingly and
remain safe. They want it spelled out in black and white, and will tend to look at all life in
polarized terms. But what happens to those cases that are in-between?
Stacy, for example, was having a difficult time deciding whether or not to leave her
boyfriend. To her, the only choices were either to live with him or completely stop the
relationship and never see him again. Neither of those choices appealed to her. It never
occurred to her that there were a number of choices between those two extremes. She
could move out and date him, and maybe date other people for a while. She could end
the relationship as she knew it and reestablish a friendship. Because she felt guilty
about her negative feelings, she thought she had to overcome them completely or
withdraw from the relationship.

Feelings are usually ambiguous. To fully embrace our feelings is to embrace that
ambiguity. Black-and-white choices are seldom acceptable. Unacceptable choices keep
us from making decisions and trap us in paralysis. When we can't move forward, the
second chakra aspect of movement is thwarted. When you feel trapped in either-or
thinking, take a moment to ask yourself what you feel guilty about.
A new kind of mathematics called fuzzy logic is being introduced into the binary logic
of computers to make them smarter. Fuzzy logic is able to approximate the states
between polarities, rather than work only with off and on, zero and one. Fuzzy logic
defines places between the apple core and the whole apple as half eaten, nearly gone,
almost whole, or any number of states in between. These states are usually more
accurate and enable better decisions .

Ambiguity has a destabilizing effect.... Very few have the courage or the strength to
hold the tension between opposites until a completely new standpoint emerges.... This
is because, in acknowledging contradictory truths, one has to create an inner
equilibrium to beep from being torn in two.

ALDO CAROTENUTO

We have to develop our ability to feel in order to discern the subtle nuances between
polarities. When feelings are numb, we can only discern the obvious differences, the
more blatant black-and-white choices. When there is guilt, we think we have to make
clear decisions and are uncomfortable with approximations. As a result, it may be
harder to get to the truth, harder to communicate that truth to others, and harder to work
through it to a sound decision.

There is, of course, a healthy place for guilt: as a feeling that allows us to examine our
behavior before, during, or after our actions. When it's not distorted, guilt tells us where
the boundaries are and where we need to make change. In its appropriate place as
feedback, guilt is not a demon but a guide. It is only when guilt becomes excessive,
habitual, internalized, and toxic that it dominates the free flow of movement and the full
sensate experience of life that is so necessary to the second chakra. Guilt is a teacher
when it guides us, but a demon when it binds us.
Sexuality

Sexuality is the ultimate expression of the many issues associated with the second

chakra: movement, sensation, pleasure, desire, emotions, and polarity. It is the
resolution of difference, the union of opposites, and the connecting experience that
transcends isolation and forms the foundation for the next chakra level: power. It is the
grounds for much of our growth, as it brings us into contact with others who are by
nature different from us.

Sexuality is the incorporation of Eros, the basic force of attraction. Eros is an ancient
god, the connecting force that unites and delights, bridges and soothes. In Hindu
mythology, Eros is the god Kama, the originator of all the gods, the binding power of
allurement that holds the universe together. Since the force of Eros brings things
together, its denial can pull things apart. In a culture this leads to destructive activities.
That unity of culture and nature, work and love, morality and sexuality for which
mankind is forever longing, this unity will remain a dream as long as man does not
permit the satisfaction of the biological demands of natural (orgastic) sexual
gratification.

WILHELM REICH

To embrace Eros is to have the capacity for surrender, to be able to flow with the
biological nature of the instinctual/emotional body. To dance with Eros is to dance with
the life force in the liberating current of the lower chakras. Sexuality is the ecstatic
expression of that force.

Sexuality, as stated earlier, has been massively misunderstood by our culture. The
wounds of mismanaged sexuality are deep and pervasive, affecting the natural flow of
excitation through the body. Guilt, as demon of the second chakra, is a direct antidote to
pleasure and self-esteem. Guilt has been poured through the sexual gates from which
Eros flows with such force that for many this portal no longer opens. Thus an essential
gateway to pleasure and transformation becomes locked. Sexuality is rejected and sent
to the realm of the shadow, where it takes on its demonic form of dissociation and
perpetration, desperately seeking connection at any cost.

To reclaim the second chakra is to reclaim our right to feel and our right to healthy
sexuality. It is the reclamation of the force of Eros as it flows through all aspects of life.
This does not mean that this energy always culminates in the sexual act. Eros is alive
and well in every aspect of our existence — the smell of food cooking in the kitchen, the
colors of a sunset, eating ice cream on a hot day. Eros needs to be an honored part of
our experience, honored for the powerful god that he is.
Balanced Characteristics

A balanced second chakra has the capacity for sexual satisfaction, physical pleasure,
general enjoyment of life, comfort with intimacy, and the ability to accept movement and
change gracefully, including graceful physical movements. There is steadiness and
clarity in emotional states. One can feel deeply without excessive histrionics. Balance
involves the ability to nurture self and others while still maintaining healthy sexual and
emotional boundaries.

Sexuality in a balanced second chakra is a healthy expression of intimacy, pleasure,
and joy, with sensitive boundaries and a true sense of connection. This balance or lack
of it can occur in any and all styles of sexuality — heterosexual, transsexual, gay,
straight, bisexual. The qualifications for healthy sexuality can only be decided by the
persons in question; however, the general guidelines of consenting adults, mutual
enhancement, integration with one's life, and stimulation of growth are a good place to
start. Ultimately, sexuality should serve the enhancement of the whole chakra system,
within and without.

GROWING THE LOTUS

Developmental Formation of the Second Chakraata Glance

AGE

6 months to 2 years
TASKS

Sensate exploration of the world

Locomotion
Separation from symbiotic fusion
NEEDS AND ISSUES
Separation vs. attachment
Safety and support to explore
Emotional security
Stimulating environment
Self-gratification

When my son, Alex took his first steps across the room on his first birthday, it was a

remarkable moment. He was truly delighted with himself and the glee on both his face
and mine was unmistakable. To the pride of us all, he was entering a new state of
maturity. He now had an increased level of independence, which brought both
excitement and danger. He could move faster in his explorations of the world and he
could also get himself hurt. His first steps were shaky and uncertain — upright, he had
farther to fall. He immediately wanted me to hold him and reassure him that he was
safe, that what he had done was OK. This dilemma, separation vs. attachment, typifies
the second chakra stage of developmen t.3

To be tender, loving, and caring, human beings must be tenderly loved and cared for in
their earliest years, from the moment they are born.

ASHLEY MONTAGU

We have described earlier the increased alertness that appears when the child is able
to sit up on his own at approximately six months. At this time, the eyes are better able to
focus, bringing the external world into the child's awareness in a way that was
previously impossible and stimulating a new influx of consciousness. The external world
is an unexplored mystery at this age, discoverable only through the senses. He now has
the desire to move outward and explore, to taste and touch at a close range what he
sees and hears from a distance. This stimulates the urge to move, which develops
locomotion.

The primary focus on the mother slowly begins to wane, as exploration of the
environment captures the child's attention. The discovery of the external world shatters
the blissful psychic unity characteristic of chakra one. The child is now plunged into a
world of duality, making his first distinctions binary — inner and outer, self and other,
pleasure and pain. Sometimes Mother's presence feels warm and wonderful while at
other times she seems angry or depriving — what psychologists call the "good mother"
and the "bad mother." The task now is to connect these dualities.
As the cognitive abilities of language and reasoning are not yet developed, the primary
means of making this connection is through feelings. The world outside stimulates
feeling states inside. Expressing internal feelings creates external changes, such as
Mother coming to comfort the child when he cries. Feelings are the dawning of psychic
awareness and the beginning of value formation. What feels pleasurable is considered
good, what is unpleasant, bad. These binary distinctions give direction to the child's

movement. He wants to move toward that which feels good and away from discomfort.
The senses are the stimulus for these feelings; hence, delighting his senses becomes
the child's driving interest. It is important to have an environment that brings pleasure to
the child as he explores, with colorful shapes, toys that make sounds, and textures to
touch.

As the body develops and grows stronger, locomotion becomes more efficient. Sensate
stimulation, feeling, and movement become inseparably linked. A child needs to be
allowed (when safe) to move according to his feelings for this link to be solid, such as
pulling away from a stranger he does not trust or being allowed to keep a toy that
beings pleasure. This links the emotions with body instincts.

The infant's inner sensations form the core of the self. They appear to remain the
central crystallization point of the "feeling of self" around which a "sense of identity" will
become established.

MARGARET MAHLER

As movement becomes more efficient, the child's world widens even more and at times
he finds himself moving away from the mother. At first this is frightening and he wants to
immediately run back and assure himself that she is still there. As this dance is
repeated, security is established, which allows the child to gradually emerge as a
separate self, setting the ground for chakra three. The child development researcher
Margaret Mahler has called this phase hatching, for the child is hatching from the
egglike symbiosis with the mother to emerge as a distinct individual.4
Touch, comfort, and nurturance give the security and connectedness that make it safe
to become separate. "Lack of touch is experienced as separation anxiety — lack of
contact, of connection," says Ashley Montagu, author of Touching: The Human
Significance of the Skin.5 This lack of connection feels like a threat to survival and
throws one back to the panic and fear of the first chakra, preventing development from
moving upward appropriately. Touch gives us our kinesthetic orientation and is the first
sensate experience we learn. Can the child learn to trust his own senses? Can he learn
to interpret them accurately? Are his feelings mirrored appropriately? Is he protected
from danger? Is he exposed to a toxic emotional field in the family? Since the
exploration of the immediate environment can be a scary and dangerous quest,
supporting guidance from caregivers is essential.

Meeting survival needs and promoting healthy emotional bonds between parents and
child help develop the second chakra by providing a pleasurable and safe experience of
outer world exploration. The flow of energy between mother and child gives this
transition stability; the constancy of Mother makes it safe to explore. The ground
becomes a springboard for upward development. Without a solid ground to push away
from, we cannot push very far, as if we were jumping on a sandy beach.
The emotional climate of the family is a crucial influence at this stage. If the mother is
fearful, angry, or anxious, the child will absorb these emotions on a nonverbal, somatic
level. Somatic experiences become hardwired into the system, meaning they become
emotional states that are biochemically anchored into the musculature beyond the
control of the conscious mind. The language of emotions (which later becomes the
emotional repertoire) is being programmed at this stage through responsive mirroring.
Such mirroring involves reflecting to the child what it seems he might be feeling. "You
don't look very happy. Is something wrong?" "I see that you are very excited!" "Are you
angry at Daddy?" If a child is preverbal, emotional mirroring happens through comfort
and voice tone — a reflection and response to the child's feeling state. This may be as
simple as picking up the child when he cries, rocking him when he's upset, or letting him
have a place to appropriately express his anger.

The tasks of this developmental stage are to develop a sensate connection between the
inner and outer world, to provide bonding and a supportive emotional environment for

both closeness and separation, to create a feeling of pleasure and connection with the
body, and to awaken the developing consciousness through sensory stimulation. If
these tasks are handled correctly, the child will develop a healthy second chakra, with
the accompanying qualities of graceful movement, deep emotion, sensitivity, passion for
life, and sexual health.

TRAUMAS AND ABUSES

Tactile and Sensate Deprivation

David grew up in a comfortable middle-class family. His mother was a devoted career
mother who had no life outside the home. She did everything expected of a
mother — she cooked and cleaned, drove her children to baseball games, laid out their
clothes in the morning, and joined the PTA. Still, she rarely touched her children. She
did not give them hugs, read them stories on her lap, or display physical affection. In
fact, no one in the family displayed affection. As a result, David carries a soul wound
that makes it hard for him to connect with himself or understand what he really wants in
life. He tends to be a loner, putting his energy into his career and avoiding the
closeness of relationships.

Loss of the essential condition of well-being that should have grown out of one's time in
arms leads to searches and substitutions for it.

Happiness ceases to be a normal condition of being alive, and becomes a goal.

JEAN LIEDLOFF

When body identity is not affirmed through touch, it is often replaced with a frozen
image — a split between the sixth and second chakra. When image takes over the
feeling self (as it does in the narcissistic personality), the person may achieve external
success yet still be internally disconnected. As life progresses, this split becomes more
pronounced until there is a breakdown. The narcissistic wound is a soul wound. The
deeper, more vulnerable, feeling self is ignored, while the shallower external self is
praised and rewarded.

Children need a certain amount of sensory input in order to develop the important
connection between mind and body. Appropriate sensate stimulation increases
intelligence, coordination, and alertness. If there are a variety of toys to play with, colors
to see, sounds to hear, and textures to touch, the mind has more input to stimulate its
process. Daniel Goleman, in his book Emotional Intelligence, describes how rats with
fancier cages (more ladders and treadmills) not only solve mazes better, but also
develop heavier brains than rats with sparse cages. 6 Important neural circuitry is
developing as sensate awareness comes into play.

Jean Liedloff, author of The Continuum Concept, notes profound developmental
differences between children that are held and carried and those who are not. Since the
child's innate instinctual expectation is to be held, a feeling of rightness occurs, which
settles the nervous system, when touched. Without this experience, the overwhelming
sense of longing to be held arises, and the sensate attention extends beyond itself and
looks for the missing experience. After too much disappointment, it becomes numb.
Liedloff says that the difference between a child's expectations and her actual reality
correlates to her sense of well-being. 7 The greater the difference, the more a child
experiences doubt, suspicion, fear of being wounded, and resignation — all of which

undermine emotional well-being.

The kind of tactuality experienced during infancy and childhood not only produces the
appropriate changes in the brain, but also affects the growth and development of the
end organs in the skin. The tactually deprived individual will suffer from a feedback
deficiency between skin and brain that may seriously affect his development as a
human being.

ASHLEY MONTAGU

Too much or too little stimulation generates serious conflicts in the internal mapping of

the outside world, the forming of relationships, and the development of grace and
movement. Children deprived of touch cope paradoxically by distancing themselves
from others, denying their need for closeness. When hugged, they often feel stiff and
wooden, unable to fully receive the hug.

Lack of touch can result in autoerotic stimulation such as habitual rocking, compulsive
masturbation, and eating disorders. All of these are attempts to fill that second chakra
gap with some kind of movement and pleasurable sensation. Marion Woodman, in
Addiction to Perfection, describes obesity as wrapping one's body with soft flesh in an
attempt to replace an absent or rejecting mother.8

Lack of touch prohibits the development of the principle channels of sensory reception.
When there is too little or too much stimulation of the senses, then the sensory channels
shut down. Failing to learn the sensate language is like failing to learn to read — we lose
an essential channel of information. Sensations are the building blocks of emotional
intelligence and allow us to get along well with others.

The other senses gradually develop in conjunction with tactile experience. The sound of
the mother's calm or angry voice connects with the warmth of being held, the loneliness
of neglect, or the fear of being hit. Visual cues such as facial expressions, light and
dark, or the decor of different rooms are connected with bodily experiences of sleeping
and waking, eating and bathing. These associations link the internal mapping system
that is developing through the child's sensate experience of the world. If the experience
is painful, then the senses shut down and the world becomes definitively smaller. The
child retreats to the inner world of fantasy and imagination.

If the stimulation is more than the child can handle, she becomes overcharged and the
excess energy will try to find a way to discharge. Since this is a period when emotions
are the primary language, this discharge occurs through emotional expression, such as
crying or anger. This habit may get firmly established and exist throughout life.
Between the ages of nine and eighteen months, the baby is learning to string together
sensations, actions, and reactions into an organized sense of self. Linking different
senses into a single gestalt of experience marks the primary connection between mind
and body. If the senses do not logically flow from experience, then the child learns to
distrust her own senses. If the sense of hunger does not result in being fed, if a
mother's soothing voice does not connect with being held, if a child is shamed or
rejected for her natural needs, then the senses seem to have failed to give proper
information to the individual. When we distrust our senses, we shut them down. Hence
the abused child, even in adulthood, may not be able to tell whether she's hungry or full,
tired or in danger, overstimulated or coming down with a cold. The senses have lost
their reliability as information gatherers.

According to Jung, an underdeveloped sensate function leads to frequent misjudging of
situations, relying instead on excessive intuition, which may often be far removed from
reality. What becomes deficient in the second chakra often shows up as an excess in
chakra six.

Whereas understimulation fails to awaken the curiosity of the developing mind and
leaves the child disconnected and alone, overstimulation may overwhelm the nervous
system and create anxiety. If we are in tune with our child, we can hopefully achieve a
balance.

Emotional Environment

Rebecca was a toddler when her parents were getting divorced. It was an angry and
painful time in her family. Still in a high chair (so her mother tells me), she witnessed
violent fights between her parents. Though Rebecca was not hit, she witnessed her
father's constant rage at his wife until her mother finally took Rebecca and her siblings
and left the marriage. It was at that point that Rebecca became a little hellion, carrying
the rage of her now-absent father. Immersed in a field of violence, Rebecca learned

anger as a primary way of relating. Ten years later, when her mother first came to me,
that pattern still persisted. It was now impacting Rebecca's social relationships, her

schoolwork, and her mother's well-being

E-motions are energy in motion. If they are not expressed, the energy is repressed. As
energy it has to go somewhere. Emotional energy moves us as does all energy.... To
deny emotion is to deny the ground and vital energy of our life.

JOHNBRADSHAW

Sometimes small children seem like little reaction machines. Energy comes in; energy
goes out. Without the maturity to temper their emotions, the feelings that run through a
family run through the children with very little change. Children do not decide to be
angry or fearful, loving or calm. They merely reflect the emotional climate in which they
are helplessly immersed.

Yet, the emotions that pass through the child affect her physiological state, sense of the
world, and growing sense of herself. If the household is saturated in anger, she may get
used to the high adrenalin state that anger creates and learn that anger is the normal
way to express oneself. If Mom or Dad are fearful, that fear is communicated to the child
nonverbally and becomes part of the child's emotional repertoire. If the environment is
loving, their developing sense, of self is centered around expecting, receiving, and
expressing that love with its attendant feelings.

This is the stage where the child develops the part of his identity that is associated with
chakra two: the emotional identity. The emotions that are most familiar become a core
complex within the developing Self — a way that we feel consistent with our internal
being later on. If anger is the emotional field that surrounds him, then the child learns to
identify with that anger and carries the biochemical state that goes with it. If it was
sadness or fear, then the child feels most "himself" when experiencing these states.
Even extreme emotions can become normal over time, so that later in life one creates
situations (such as danger, conflict, or loss) that produce similar emotions. In order to
break this cycle, the emotions must be identified and understood, while creating new,
more productive patterns of expression.

However, the emotions children express in reaction to their situations are often met with
punishment, rejection, or shame. Rebecca was punished for her temper tantrums. David
became emotionally withdrawn, and was ridiculed for being shy. Sarah was naturally
exuberant, but was shamed into being quiet. The expression of feelings then becomes a
mistrusted impulse.

Unable to trust our own feelings, we instead hold them in, shut them down, or dissociate
from them. Since emotions are an instinctual response to experience, we lose a vital
connection to experience and to life. Alcohol or drugs may be used to create distance
from experience. Behavior may be compulsive, devoid of feelings. An abusive parent is
unable to feel the pain of the child. Since our feelings are so immersed in sensation,
inhibiting them requires us to deaden the sensations of our body and hence deaden our
aliveness as well.

Emotions are the first language of the child, spoken through the instinctual reactions of
the body. The child learns her emotional language through effective mirroring and
positive response to her raw feeling state. If the parent responds to the child's emotional
expression, then the child learns that her innate reactive language is effective and pays
more attention to it. If she learns to understand her emotions, she becomes emotionally
literate, which means she can read and communicate with her own emotions and those
of others. Emotions can then evolve into meaning (i.e., mature through the chakras).
Empathy promotes emotional literacy. Effective mirroring lets a child attach
consciousness to her instinctual feelings. She learns that a certain internal state is
called anger, while other feelings may be called sadness or fear. In this way she
learns to express her feelings in a more mature way. When Johnny looks sad, his

mother says, "Oh you look sad today. What's the matter?" This teaches him to name his
feelings, to read them, and later communicate them through language instead of acting
out.

Emotions are an instinctual movement of psychic energy. Only our mind interprets some
emotions as "good" and others as "bad." When we repress the emotions related to
abuse, we simultaneously repress all our emotions, and with them the movement of the
spirit.

Being told not to feel a certain way negates our second chakra right to feel. "Oh, you
mustn't feel that way about your uncle." "Wipe that smirk off your face!" "You've no right
to be angry!" If we believe these injunctions, we institute the domination of mind over
feeling. We feel guilty about our feelings and repress them, even to the point where they
are no longer recognizable.

Susan, for example, was never allowed to be angry. Nothing in her life made her angry,
so this did not seem to be a problem. She complained instead of the isolation she
created by continually withdrawing from people. She did not see that her withdrawal
was a result of the anger she was unable express. If she could only express what she
disliked, she might be able to make changes in her relationships instead of withdraw.
To a person who is emotionally illiterate, watching someone in an emotional state is a
complete mystery, as if that person is speaking a foreign language. The emotional one
is criticized for making no sense or acting foolishly, while an emotional illiterate finds his
own feelings an equal mystery. When the feeling function is underdeveloped, it comes
out in its shadow form as moodiness. The moods are not consciously connected to
feelings but, nevertheless, carry emotional tones that are usually quite apparent to
anyone else. When asked what is wrong, the moody person usually answers with a
grumpy "Nothing!" which is actually meant to be a true statement. Their illiteracy
prevents them from being able to read their own emotions and learn their important
meaning.

In a family where feelings are simply not expressed, there is no opportunity to learn
emotional language. Without emotional literacy, a whole dimension of human
experience and connection is lost. Without the ability to read our own needs and
feelings, we are unable to meet them, and remain trapped until the message is finally
interpreted.

EnMCSIMJJT

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of life's longing for
itself. They come through you, but not of you. And though they are with you yet, they
belong not to you.

KAHLIL GIBRAN

Second chakra development begins with a fused identity between mother and child and
ends with the emergence of autonomy. The child first learns his emotions as an
extension of those of the family, but later learns to have his own. When the child is not
allowed to emerge and express himself as a unique individual, he is enmeshed. When
emotions arise that are not pleasing to the mother, such as anger, dependency, or fear,
and they are met with punishment, rejection, or shame, then the child learns that he
can only have feelings that correspond to his parent's wishes or feeling states. He is not
allowed to develop a separate identity grounded in his own sensate/emotional
experience. The child's life is defined in terms of family needs, but the family is not there
to supply the child's needs. An enmeshed child will therefore feel guilty when pursuing
his own needs and interests.

The enmeshed child is given a false sense of self. He takes his cues from outside
himself, defines his feeling state by the reactions of others, and forms an outer persona
that may be at profound odds with his inner needs. This is the basis of the narcissistic
personality described so well by Alice Miller in The Drama of the Gifted Child.9 The

outer persona is believed to be the real self. The result is a life lived without
individuation or authenticity.

An enmeshed child will be highly aware of everyone else's feelings. Clairsentience (the
ability to sense others' emotions) comes from a second chakra that is too other-directed
and not grounded enough in one's bodily experience. A clairsentient walks into a party
and feels responsible for the woman in the corner who is being ignored, or he can feel
the jealousy of his neighbour, whose wife is flirting, all without awareness of his own
needs. A little clairsentience gives us sensitivity to others but too much separates us
from our ground and leaves us ruled by a tumultuous blend of others' emotions that we
cannot control.

I have come to realize that sexual assault is an imposed death experience for the
That is, the victim experience her life as having been taken by somebody else.

EVANGELINE

Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse hits at the very core of the second chakra. Whether mild or severe, within
the family or outside, sexual abuse has long-lasting effects on all aspects of the second
chakra: the free flow of energy within the body, the ability to have intimacy, pleasure,
and healthy sexuality as an adult, comfort with emotions, a healthy sense of boundaries,
and a positive relationship with one's own body. Nor is sexual abuse limited only to
second chakra damage — it affects our sense of trust, our experience of power (or lack
thereof), our future relationships, and often, because of the secrecy involved, our ability
to communicate. Since it assaults the feeling and sensate functions of the body,
chakras six and seven often compensate by an excess of intuition and thinking.
Sexual abuse comprises anything that does not respect the natural development of a
child's sexuality. Sexual abuse could be slapping or punishing a child for touching his
own genitals, or pushing sexuality onto a child who is not developmentally able or
interested. Sexual abuse includes exhibitionism, voyeurism, exposure to pornography,
sexual teasing, invasion of privacy, unwanted physical affection, age-inappropriate
sexual language or jokes, as well as the obvious genital fondling or sexual engagement
with a child by an adult, parent, or older sibling. Enticing a child through exposure,
flirtation, or promises of rewards to express sexual interest in ways he or she might not
otherwise, also comprises sexual abuse. It does not allow the child's sexuality to
develop at its own pace. Adults who push themselves on unwilling adult victims are also
engaging in sexual abuse, but I am concerning myself here with activities that affect us
at more developmentally sensitive ages. The younger such an event occurs, the more
devastating its effects.

The stimulation of erogenous zones is meant to dissolve boundaries. For adults, this is
usually a pleasurable experience. The child's original state, however, is without
boundaries. Early childhood development is oriented toward developing an ego that can
make boundaries and distinctions, rather than toward dissolving them. If erogenous
zones are stimulated at these sensitive ages, boundaries may not form and the child
may have difficulty blocking or even sorting out influences coming in from outside. This
difficulty with boundaries is often a lifelong struggle for victims of childhood sexual
abuse. Without good boundaries, they fail to protect themselves against future
invasions, and the incidence of further traumatic sexual experience is very high.
Internally, this can even affect the immune system, which may fail to appropriately
recognize invading organisms.

Sexual abuse can produce emotional numbness, dissociation, various addictions, eating
disorders, or phobias, sexual dysfunction, guilt and shame, depression, hostility,
dependency, sleep disorders, psychosomatic disorders, and many other difficulties with
life. It wreaks havoc on relationships where issues of trust and intimacy come into play,
and many abuse survivors choose celibacy and isolation rather than take the risk of

further betrayal. Others may become highly sexual or promiscuous, repeatedly seeking
the high erotic charge that was imposed upon them as children. For this reason, some
untreated sexual abuse survivors become subsequent perpetrators, failing to respect
the boundaries of others and unconsciously acting out the abuse they suffered. Often,
sexual abuse is so traumatic that the events are repressed from memory, making them
hard to effectively recognize and treat. For others, the memories are all too intrusive
and arise spontaneously at unwanted times, such as during moments of intimacy,
relaxation, meditation, or social interaction.

Sexual abuse confuses the pleasure/pain dynamic and distorts the interpretation of
emotion. Because the physical experience may be pleasurable while the emotional
betrayal is painful, there can be a continued confusion around pleasure and pain. One
may feel sad or ashamed when feeling pleasure, or limit pleasure for fear of the
emotions it brings up. In other cases, where the perpetrator was a trusted family
member and the abuse occurred in the guise of intimacy and closeness (sometimes the
only closeness the child received), emotional pleasure can be coupled with guilt and
shame. The whole arena of the second chakra gets immensely scrambled. Abuse
survivors often feel betrayed by their own bodies and may choose to ignore its signals
altogether. Sorting out these conflicting messages buried in sensation and emotion is a
long and difficult process.

Bringing the abuse to consciousness, learning about its effects, and engaging the
healing process promotes profound changes in every aspect of one's life. It is possible
to heal the effects of sexual abuse and there are now many trained therapists, groups,
and books out to assist the healing process (see the bibliography at the end of the
book).
Rape

Rape is such obvious assault to the second chakra that it nearly speaks for itself. The
use of sexuality for power and violence, the violation of one's boundaries and one's
dignity, the intimidation and annihilation of the spirit within — all assault the entire chakra
system. As the second chakra is the first place in the system where the outside comes
in (an essential gateway to being an open system), the violation of rape may force the
entire system to close. Any of the effects listed for child sexual abuse can also occur
with adult experiences of rape. When there are unhealed wounds from childhood abuse,
rape is not only a traumatic event in and of itself, but also a reenactment of earlier
events. The stronger our basic lower chakra foundations, the better our resources for
recovery.
Abortion

Abortion is not an abuse that happens to a young child, yet it needs to be considered
here as it can have profound effects on a woman's second chakra. On an emotional
level, abortion constitutes a moral struggle, and no matter how liberal one's views, the
decision is never easy. It is nearly always accompanied by emotional turmoil, often by
guilt and fear, and may entail a profound sense of grief and loss. In addition, abortion
halts the natural process of the body that is geared toward continuing the pregnancy.
Even with anesthesia, there is assault on the second chakra organs, and such a wound
takes time to heal, time which is seldom acknowledged.

A woman who has just had an abortion needs to treat herself with the tenderness she
would give to a rape victim, because in a sense, the womb gets raped in an abortion.
Not only is it helpful to create ritual or dialog around the possible spirit of the child, but it
is also important to dialog with the body before, during, and after the operation. We can
tell the body what is going to happen, comfort the body during the process, and soothe
the body after it is over. It is important to have a friend who can hear your grief and take
time to write in your journal or be alone with your feelings.

It does not help that the political climate around abortion is so stormy. A woman goes

through enough pain and trauma just dealing with an unwanted pregnancy; if she
comes to the difficult decision to have an abortion, she needs love and support, not
further degradation and shame.
General Effects of Abuses

In a world that both seeks and denies pleasure, where sexuality has become confused,
misaligned, and mistreated, and where mechanization denies the sensate experiences
of the body, the wounds to the second chakra are many and profound. Anything that
blocks development of the second chakra severs two essential connections: the
internal connection between mind and body, and the external connection that joins
inner and outer worlds, self and other, soul and environment. Without these
connections, we become, as Alexander Lowen states, "split into a disembodied spirit
and a disenchanted body."l0

Lacking tactile stimulation and nurturing, we become literally out of touch, fragmented,
isolated, removed, disconnected, and ultimately misinformed. If our sensate channels
close down, we block the bulk of our information input and become closed off in our own
world. Out of touch with our own feelings, we are necessarily out of touch with the
feelings of others and lack the basis for empathy and compassion necessary to get to
the fourth chakra.

If expression through movement is denied, our bodies become rigid, yet blocking this
requires a great deal of energy. A child who monitors all his actions for fear of rejection
or criticism becomes heavily armored, with a rigidity that is reflected in physical
awkwardness and personal discomfort. Often there is a similar lack of flexibility and
openness to new ideas, alternative lifestyles, adventures, or possibilities. What is
rejected then becomes projected— rigidity can be vehemently judgmental, fueled by
the passion that is forbidden in the feeling realm.

CHARACTER STRUCTURE

The Oral The Lover

Samantha sat on my couch with tears streaming down her face. Her voice, like her
body, was heavy and slow. She had first come to me for depression and overeating, but
now she was facing a dark despair over the sudden loss of her primary relationship with
a woman she had hoped to share her life with. She felt abandoned and betrayed. She
felt like she was falling apart. She had trouble getting a deep breath. She could not stop
thinking about her lover and was desperately hanging on to the slightest hope for
reconciliation. She was having trouble taking care of herself, having trouble
concentrating at work, and at times felt suicidal. On this day, she felt like all hopes for
her future were dashed — that without her lover she was forever lost.
Figure 2.1. Oral Character Structure (the Lover)
The Undernourished Child

FJtST
CHAKItA

Deficit**

SECOND
CHAKSA

THIRD
CHAKRA

FOURTH
CHAKRA

reeling ot
emptiness,
abandonment

Ucpcnucnt.
clingy

Undcrcnargca,
lethargic

Believe* tlut love
wiD solve
everything

11 tK-UJlV

forming onseself
body appears
collapsed

Lack of

agression,
fear of
anger

very aiLiiLXjcu

in relationships,
loyal

Leg? don't
support, can t
stand on own
two feet; kne«

IOCKLCI

Craves touch,
nurturance, sex

Poor muscle tone

Very loving, kind,
compassionate (
understanding

Scarcity — there's
never enough

P.nnitn-sii.illv

responsive

Doesn't recognize
power options

Codependent

Fear of
letting go

Wants to merge

Debases oneself,
especially in
relationships

Feels rejected
easily

Feels deprived

Poor self-esteem

Easily discouraged,
demands feel
impossible

FIFTH
CHAKftA

SIXTH
CHAKRA

May l* U*rc*J

SEVENTH
CHAICRA

rius cmpuncss
with oral activity,
such as talking

Vjan manliest in
cither direction

opintviai connection
about seeking
union, more to
heal heart wound

PninoK ^-i 1 f thrill IOTI

conversation and
vies it to hold their
attention (get love)

Focus on others
makes for highly

sensitive intuition

S.r-1 i n T l i -a I lt\J IVI3V

JV 1 III 1 ! Uil 1 1 1 T 1 1 1-U T

mirror parent-child
relationship (i.e., infantile),
wants to get taken care of

Immature
communication —

doesn't ask
dirccdy for needs

Lack of energy
from the ground may
not nuke it to the
upper chakras

Intelligence is

.— ji 1 .-i j ■ 1 a |i h n

caicuianng
fixated on
meeting needs

Voice may b<
childlike or sad

Daydreams to fill
emptiness

The oral character does not make a strong effort to reach out for what he wants. In part
this is due to a lack of strong desire, in part to the fear of reaching.... He hopes to get
what he wants somehow without reaching for it; in this way he can circumvent the
feared disappointment.

ALEXANDER LOWEN

Samantha is an example of an Oral character structure. Her feelings of loss and despair
are quite real. If we could be in her body, we would feel the devastating emptiness, as if
someone had just turned a switch and cut off all our vital supplies. It would be difficult to
sit up straight. We would want to collapse, curl up in a ball, and have someone hold us.
Our arms might hang lifeless at our sides. We would want to cling, forgive, plead with
our lover to stay and take care of us. The abandonment would be all too real and
familiar because we have been here before in other relationships. We would be lost in
our grief.

In Freud's psychosexual stages, the first and second chakras correlate developmental^
to the oral stage, where the primary focus is on nourishment and physical contact.
When there is deprivation at this stage, the child does not get the energy she needs,
and literally has trouble forming herself. The deprivation is usually emotional — too much
separation from the mother, too little touch, too little attention — but it can also be
physical, in terms of not getting enough to eat, losing access to the breast too soon, or

having a mother without enough energy to nourish her child. In this day and age, where
working and single mothers are common, there are many reasons why a mother may
not be able to provide adequately for her child, either emotionally or physically. The
result is deficiency in the first chakra's ability to ground and form, and an excessive
neediness in the second chakra. We can think of the Oral character as the
undernourished child (see figure 2.1).

In bioenergetics, the Oral character is seen as dependent, addictive, and needy. The
body tends to be soft and underformed, sometimes thin and collapsed, other times
overweight, but loosely bound. There is usually collapse in the chest, and the muscles
and flesh seem to sag with resignation (see this page, Oral Character). From their
deprivation, Orals remain chronically undercharged. They are prone to depression and
generally have too little energy. They question not so much their right to exist (as it
was for the Schizoid/Creative structure) but rather the right to have. They are less
concerned with the question of "Will I survive?" but instead ask, "Am I wanted?" Their
issues center around satisfactory nourishment from food or love. They desperately want
to be loved; when this longing is frustrated, as it usually is, they turn to food and oral
activities for comfort.

Where the Schizoid withdraws, the Oral seeks dependence and merging as a defense
against deprivation. This relates to the infant's inability to provide for her own emotional
needs and must receive energy from outside herself in order to feel normal. Therefore,
the focus of energy as an adult is also fixated outside the self. When loved, the Oral
personality feels energized and whole. She is nurturing and giving, a loyal partner who
is perceptive and understanding. She bonds well and loves deeply, and for this reason
her kinder name is the Lover. Lovers are not afraid to love, dissolve boundaries, or be
close, even though they tend to get hurt. Since they love so deeply, losing a relationship
is especially baffling and they wonder why another's love is not as deep as their own.
Their dependency is often clinging, which, of course, drives people away and
perpetuates the problem. Rejection becomes their greatest fear.
As Lover types perk up when interacting with others, they often find definition through
service to others, though this defense can also be a trap. Through service, one
ostensibly earns the right to have their needs met as well as the sense of being wanted.
The Oral personality is a prime candidate for codependence — with a compulsive need
to fix and fixate on others.

The exhaustion that results from constant giving creates an even greater emptiness
inside, and this is the vicious cycle of the Oral structure. They give in order to receive,
but seldom receive in kind, and so keep themselves depleted and feeling even needier.
Often, the more an Oral character is deprived, the harder she tries to give. Breaking this
cycle involves learning to nourish oneself physically, emotionally, and spiritually. By
filling our own vessel, our neediness decreases and we are better able to receive. Our
giving then comes from a more mature place of fullness rather than emptiness.
As the name might imply, the Oral character is often fixated on cooking and eating food,
or other oral activities such as smoking, drinking, excessive talking, or biting. Food,
being the only solid substance we ingest, provides a sense of support and solidity and is
a substitute for the emotional nurturing that was lacking. In actuality, it is a kind of
nourishment — it gives support, strength, and a feeling of inner presence to fill the
intolerable emptiness. Unfortunately, excessive eating can lead to lethargy and inertia
and prevents healthy grounding. Having a heavy body is a way of feeling heavy enough
to be anchored in the world, wrapping oneself with the body of the mother and
producing the comfort that was not supplied when it was necessary. Curtailing the
eating may produce anxiety or depression and may reveal an emptiness that has no
specific focus or content.

Oral/Lover types believe that love can solve everything. They can be the sacrificial

mother, the devoted wife, the loyal worker. They can be good at breaking down
another's walls, as they do not experience a great need for boundaries in their
interpersonal relationships. They are mystified when others erect boundaries, say no, or
create separation. This lack of boundaries causes rejection from others and perpetuates
the vicious cycle of dependency-rejection-insecurity-clinging-rejection.
Oral types have poorly developed aggression and seldom get angry, partly because
their energy levels are low, and because getting angry risks rejection, their greatest
fear. Without aggression, the Oral character has difficulty forming the hard, definitive
edges characteristic of first chakra solidity and so necessary for survival. Focus and
self-discipline, boundary formation, and acceptance of enforced structure (such as a job
or school) require immense effort and may seem like alien concepts with unfair
demands that Orals resent and resist.

Healing those with an Oral character structure involves teaching them to stand on their
own two feet and feel power and completion in their separateness and independence. It
helps to encourage their aggression, which energizes the body and moves the liberating
current upward to nourish the upper chakras. They do not need to develop the second
chakra, which is usually excessive, but instead need to balance this excess by
developing the chakras directly above and below it, namely, those of will and grounding.
Their strong ability to love needs to be turned back upon themselves in self-care and
spiritual nourishment. The first step is to move them out of their excessive emotional
state, and back in touch with solid ground.

An excessive second chakra has
a weak boundary and poor
containment. There may be too
little discretion about sexual and
emotional expression, with a
stronger movement outward
than inward.

A deficient second chakra has a rigid
boundary and lets very little energy
pass into its core. Depleted, there is
little drive io reach outward.

Figure 2.2. Second Chakra Excess and Deficiency

EXCESS AND DEFICIENCY

Since the second chakra is about movement, excess and deficiency reflect the amount

of internal and external movement of the body, as well as emotional identification and
sexual expression. As we are passing through the realm of duality, a healthy balance is
essential for progress to the third chakra center of power. Maintaining two poles
requires enough flexibility to expand to either pole as situations require. There is no
power with only one pole.

Many people vacillate between excess and deficiency in this chakra — some over a
period of years marking major cycles of sexual activity or celibacy, for example, while
others may experience extreme emotional fluctuations within a single day. Holding

one's center (related to the grounding of chakra one) is essential to finding a healthy
balance. This balance is not a matter of rigid restriction to a fixed center, but of
homeostatic fluctuation around an inner stability, much as those toys with weights on
the bottom always return to an upright position because the heaviness of the base
always brings them back home. Finding our center in the tumultuous oceans of the
second chakra is a sign of resolution that allows us to move on (see figure 2.2).
Deficiency

Dave found it hard to know what he was feeling. He would go into depressive moods,
sometimes for days, but could rarely decipher what was bothering him. His marriage
was stable but lacked passion. Sex to him often felt like a duty rather than a pleasure.
Having been rarely touched as a child, he was uncomfortable with displays of affection.
He complained of feeling emotionally numb in life, while his wife's emotional fluctuations
were a complete mystery to him. He was not particularly happy in his job but was
terrified to contemplate making a change. His body was well formed but rigid. Dave's
second chakra program was very sparsely written. As a result, the chakra was closed
down.

Second chakra deficiency results, above all, in restricted movement, physically,
emotionally, and sexually. In the body this can be seen as rigid or jerky motions, stiff
joints, and a rigid musculature that has trouble yielding to softness and feeling. Such a
person walks stiffly, with little motion in the hips and with difficulty bending the knees
and pelvis. (This varies according to severity; not all deficiencies are so obvious.) Try
walking while holding your pelvis rigid and you get an idea of what it might feel like. You
can feel the rigidity that is required by the entire rest of the body.
Restricted movement inhibits the flow of excitation through the body, inhibits the
nourishment of chi, or vital energy, lowers the breathing and metabolic rate, and
diminishes the emotions. Since movement and change are essential to the system's
resilience, the rigidity of second chakra deficiency makes us fragile. To protect this
fragility, boundaries are kept very strong in order to keep out unwanted energy that
might induce change and threaten stability. There is a belief that if we let feelings flow,
we will fall down the rabbit hole with nothing to support us. For many, this feels like
disintegration, and until there is adequate ground to support new movement, this may
be a very real fear.

On a mental level, restricted movement and fear of change may create a
monopolarization of ideas — the belief in only one way to do things. This, too, must be
defended by rigid and hostile boundaries (often seen with religious and political
fanaticism). New input is resisted, and the single pointed focus can create an intensity
that may appear powerful, but is really brittle and fragile.

Since pleasure invites an expansion of energy from the core to the periphery, then
someone with a deficient second chakra remains in a contracted state. Such a person
tends to avoid pleasure, often because of a harsh inner critic that cannot allow fun
without self-condemnation. This denial may send energy to higher chakras, with either
positive or negative results. The energy may move upward to the third chakra as frantic
activity or workaholism, or to the higher chakras as increased creativity, religious fervor,
obsession with purity, or intellectual pursuits. As pleasure becomes a rejected self, the
pleasure of others meets with harsh judgment.

Deficiency on the emotional level can result from either a complete lack of programming
(as in growing up in an emotionally cold household) or from suppressing emotions in
order to tolerate an intense situation. In either case, a lack of feeling and a
corresponding lack of bodily sensation are avoidant strategies that lead to second
chakra deficiency. This produces a feeling of emptiness, a dullness about life, a feeling
of being stuck (no inner movement), and a sense of isolation. There may be a kind of
resignation, apathy, or pessimism, and an inability to sense one's own needs.

Sexually, a deficient second chakra manifests in repressed, diminished, or nonexistent
sexual feelings. It may be difficult to connect emotionally during sex, with numbness in
the lower body, or difficulty achieving arousal or climax. There may be shame around
sex, judgment, or simply intense shyness that contracts the energy at a time when it
would otherwise expand and merge with another. As sexuality is such a complex issue,
fear of sex may, in fact, be fear of the feelings that sex opens up — internalized shame
about not being good enough, shame about our bodies, panic around weak
boundaries, inability to communicate well, or any number of related issues from past
wounds.

Contraction in the second chakra may also affect the social realm, as social skills
require emotional literacy. Internalized guilt and shame can produce intense
awkwardness in social situations, making one seem stiff or cold when interacting with
others. One may be perceived as having no feelings, when actually the feelings may
merely be hidden. Deficiency in the second chakra usually results in introversion.
Excess

Dana was always in an emotional state. To her, everything seemed like a crisis that had
to be dealt with immediately. She was sometimes exuberant, full of energy, and
inspiring to be around. At other times she was gripped by anger or torrents of tears, as if
her world were falling apart. She was highly social and spent much of her time on the
phone or going to parties. In her relationships, she was highly sexual and very giving.
She loved to get deeply involved and her relationships had dramatic ups and downs.
She had trouble sitting still, concentrating on tasks, or delaying gratification in any way.
When I worked with her, she was two years sober but had been an alcoholic for over a
decade. Dana's excessive second chakra overcompensated for her lack of emotional
fulfillment as a child.

With an excessive second chakra, one feels most alive in intense emotional states. The
phrase "I am angry" implies that we are that emotion, rather than merely having a
momentary feeling. For some people, the only time they feel they are anything is when
they are feeling some kind of intense emotion. The range may fluctuate from rage to
tears, excitement to fears — each one the center around which everyone else must
dance. It is difficult for such a person to separate their feelings from the realities of the
situation. If they feel threatened, they can't tell whether the threat is real. They cannot
see that their fear may be related to something in their own past, or that they have
choices in how they react. They may also be excessively sensitive emotionally, unable
to let things roll off their back, and take everything to heart. Emotions may range wildly
from one state to another within a relatively short time period.

In this type, the upward current, based in unconscious instincts, is more active than the
downward current of conscious understanding. In a family, the ones with strong
emotions may dictate the behavior of the rest of the family. This excess also creates
deficiency in the other members. The emotional dictator takes up all the emotional
space and everyone else must dance around their volatile or depressive moods,
stripped of the right to their own feelings.

In contrast to the isolation of the deficient state, the person with a second chakra excess
has an intense need to be connected at all times. There may be an addiction to people
and partying, with an inability to be alone, form boundaries, or say no. As the
corresponding developmental stage is still one of merging and dependence, being stuck
in the second chakra keeps us in a state that is still trying to find completion through
others.

Without the ability to comprehend separateness, there is difficulty separating one's own
feelings from those of others (clairsentience). People with high clairsentience are so
aware of what everyone else is feeling, they have trouble getting in touch with their own
feelings. If they are around someone depressed, they take on the depression, as if it is

their fault. They are happy if others are happy. This may result in social, sexual, and
emotional dependencies.

Often this social dependency results from an attempt to block out the intensity of one's
deeper emotions. When we are with others, busily interacting and attending to their
needs, we are distracted from our own fears and sadness. Since emotional needs at
this developmental stage must be met from outside, fixation at this level results in a
fixation on others at the cost of oneself — a state commonly known as codependency.
Stimulation of the senses is craved by a system that is excessive in this chakra. In
contrast to the deficient who might prefer bland colors, foods, or uniformity in
surroundings, the excessive wants constant stimulation, change, and excitement. These
people have a highly dramatic sense of being alive, which may initially appear as a kind
of thriving, yet their stimulation seldom gets channeled into real output, and the person
may feel lost or alone when they try to be in a quieter state.

Sexually, the excessive second chakra seems to lead the rest of the system around by
its gonads. Often wonderful lovers, they are responsive to the instinctual energy of
Eros, and thrive on the intimacy, connection, and ego validation they feel in sexual
situations. While there is nothing wrong with this in and of itself, it becomes a problem
when it wins out over good discrimination in the choice of lovers, creates sexual
addiction to the point of neglecting other elements of life, or results in a conquest of
lovers rather than real intimacy. Quantity may become more important than quality.
The second chakra relates to the element water, and an excessive second chakra has a
container that is weak due to poor boundaries, spilling and scattering the water before it
can nourish growth inside. There may be a need for constant movement, making it
difficult to stick to one thing long enough to manifest.

In terms of the pleasure principle, the excessive second chakra may be so oriented
toward pleasure that it prevents anything else from being accomplished. When faced
with difficulty, the pleasure addict says simply, "It's too hard. I want to go out and have
fun and feel better." An excessive chakra grabs the energy and does not let it pass on to
other chakras. Therefore, the energy needed to fuel the will gets grabbed by the need
for immediate gratification. If that gratification could be eventually satisfied, it would be
fine, but when the cycle becomes addictive, it is never satisfied and always dominates
any other urges.
Addictions

Addictions are difficult to classify in terms of chakras because different substances
produce different states. Even addiction in general cannot be classified in any single
chakra. In chemical dependency, the drug of choice gives us important clues about
chakra imbalances. For example, stimulants or depressants relate primarily to the
energy dynamics of the third chakra, while alcohol creates the merging and lessening of
inhibition more closely related to the second chakra. Excessive eating may be an
attempt to ground, related to chakra one; a move toward pleasure (chakra two); or
blocked anger in the third. But all addictions are initially an attempt to create or deny a
feeling or a state of consciousness. The attempt to create a particular state is a
compensation, while denial is an avoidance. This gives us our basic excessive and
deficient coping strategies.

Alcohol lessens the inhibiting control of the conscious mind, which allows the liberating
current to come up from below and move unhindered toward the crown, releasing
energy and discharging the system. When the downward current, which focuses and
limits, becomes excessive, the life force can feel restricted and relief is felt by
overthrowing its dominating influence. An alcoholic may free up his anger or say things
that were previously blocked as the energy moves upward. Free of inhibition, he can be
spontaneous, share his feelings, make jokes, and feel alive. Unfortunately, there is no
integration with this release. There is expression but little reception. The relief is only

temporary and must be repeated again and again — a cycle that leads to addiction. Here
is a clear example of where sending energy upward is not always beneficial.
While the treatment of addictions is a complicated process beyond the scope of this
book, the need to reroute the cyclic repetitive patterns and discharge the underlying
emotional force falls under the domain of the second chakra. Since addiction is so often
the result of an emotional wound, the general principles of second chakra healing apply.
They are reconnecting with the sensations of the body, discharging and/or learning to
contain pervading emotions, completing blocked movements frozen by trauma, and
learning to decipher and appropriately meet needs.

7
6
5
4
3
2
1

Religion, spiritual practices
Hallucinogens, marijuana

Opiates, marijuana

Tobacco {smoking), sugar,
love, marijuana

Amph et am i n es , c: t >c at n e ,
caffeine, work, anger

Alcohol, sex, heroin

Food, gambling, shopping, work

RESTORING

Figure 2.3. Addictions and Related Chakras

THE LOTUS

Healing the Second Chakra

JOHN BRADSHAW

There is so much amiss in our cultural attitudes about emotions and sexuality that
healing this chakra becomes a monumental task that extends beyond our personal
selves. Who has the final word on what healthy sexuality really looks like? What is an
appropriate level of emotional response? When have we ever completed our emotional
work? How do we fully open our sensate channels in a world that is full of assaulting
sounds and images? How do we hold a healthy and potent sexuality that by nature
involves others, when others are wounded in their own sexuality? If there were a
touchstone for a healed second chakra, it might be the ability to embrace change

without losing one's core stability.

It would take a whole book to describe all the intricacies of healing second chakra
issues. Indeed, there are many volumes on healing from sexual abuse alone, not to
mention emotional abuse, inner child work, object relations, enmeshment, and
movement-oriented therapies, all of which also relate directly to the second chakra. My
discussion of healing techniques will be limited to those related specifically to chakra
theory.

Healing the second chakra is largely a matter of encouraging the excess or deficiency to
move toward the center. The basic premise is simple: Where movement is restricted,
identify holding patterns and encourage movement. Where movement is excessive,
learn to contain, either by releasing emotions so the pressure is lessened or by learning
to tolerate increased sensation and excitement. This requires learning to pay attention
to the subtle currents and impulses that flow through the body.

REINSTATE THE NATURAL HEALING PROCESS

It must be understood that the body has its own healing process. When we cut
ourselves, it is important to clean and bandage the wound, but the natural healing
process takes place on its own beneath the bandage. We are biologically equipped with
innate instincts for healing and self-preservation, and when these instincts get
interrupted by trauma or ongoing stress, then our whole foundation is upset, and with it
the free flow of energy.

The streaming of energy through the body is the body's way of restoring balance.
Freeing this stream while simultaneously providing a safe container will promote much
of the healing. This reestablishes the flow of liberation that allows us to leave
constricting patterns and expand. As the liberating flow rises into consciousness, its
meaning is integrated into a larger context. This helps bring the manifesting current
downward, channeling the emotional energy toward constructive ends.
In healing the second chakra, we always act on behalf of the body's natural healing
process, where movement and emotion are essential. When that movement is
restricted, so too is the healing process. If one's innate reaction to a given situation has
been thwarted, then there is a constant tendency to recreate similar situations so as to
complete the initial pattern. If the block is severe, similar situations may not allow
completion, leaving us in a hopeless cycle of repeating negative traumas without being
able to resolve them and move on.
THAWING THE ICE-
RESTORING THE FREE FLOW OF MOVEMENT

Ray first came into my office complaining about a recurrent pain in his neck. He had
tried physical therapy, chiropractic work, massage, standard psychotherapy, and a
variety of other methods to no avail. As there was no organic cause for the pain, he
knew some mind-body issue was at work. I could see that he held his body rigidly, that
his neck moved very little, and that his hands and arms were held close to his chest. His
energy was contracted.

)ccurs only when an individual adapts to threat (a normal response) but
to adapt again or unable to return to pre-threat functioning.... It is the inr
(or thwarted) flight or fight that results in the freezing response which will leac
lumatic symptoms.

PETER LEVINE

When we first began bioenergetic work, he responded very favorably. He charged up
easily and discharged with a shaking motion that soon evolved into intense but random
movements of his arms and shoulders. Knowing that there was a fair degree of trauma
behind his frozen response, I proceeded carefully and spent several weeks gently
charging and discharging through movement before getting into the content of the
trauma. Like a pressure cooker, this energy needed to be released slowly before taking
off the lid. I encouraged various movements of the arms and shoulders, which allowed

lead to

him to connect more deeply to his body's ability to move.

Understanding the block as trapped energy, I knew I needed to open things up in order
to clear out the energy. Allowing the arms to regain their mobility created an opening
and decreased his feeling of powerlessness. Gradually I began weaving his historical
material and emerging emotions into the movement, which soon changed from random
motions to purposeful expression. He learned to use his arms in accordance with his
inner needs, alternately reaching out for support or pushing away to establish
boundaries. With boundaries and a sense of power and grounding established, it
became safe to work more deeply on the emotional material. We gradually thawed the
ice in his body and restored emotional flow.

When an organism is threatened, the flow of energy in the body is increased in
preparation for fight or flight. If neither running nor fighting are possible (as with a child
getting beaten by his father), then we have to override these impulses, even while the
body is being energized. Repeated trauma that we cannot overcome forces us to live in
this energetic contradiction of activation and inhibition. This results in a kind of frozen
intensity known as tonic immobility or the freezing response. The ability to play dead
as a way to fool predators or lessen the effect of the trauma is a natural biological
response throughout the animal kingdom. Freezing enables us to partially check out of
the body and dissociate from the painful sensations that are likely to occur. If we cannot
prevent trauma, dissociation is a valuable defense. It keeps us from being overwhelmed
by deadening our awareness in the immediate experience.

Somatic therapist Peter Levine has studied the way repeated traumas and abuse create
a chronic freezing response in the body. When a trauma is activated, one shakes
slightly as if cold. Actually, we are frozen stiff, frozen in our movement, contracted and
withdrawn into ourselves, and using up a great deal of energy in the process. In the
animal kingdom, this freezing response is not meant to be permanent. When the trauma
is over, an animal may shake and move erratically, discharging the frozen energy and
eventually returning to its natural state.

If trauma is repeated or constant, or if there is no comfort or safe space in which to
discharge, then we do not get to release this extra frozen energy. A certain portion of
our being remains locked in the trauma and free expression of energy becomes
inhibited. Peter Levine's description is graphic:

When we are unable to respond effectively to danger, our nervous system experiences
the danger as an ongoing event which then becomes frozen in our psyche. When the
nervous system is overwhelmed, conflicting messages go out to the muscles. They
cannot act in concert. Movements lose their fluidity. They become jerky, rigid, and
uncoordinated which only intensifies the anxiety induced by the event. When the
experience is intense enough the organism collapses. The body/mind experiences this
as anxiety, helpessness, defeat, and depression. 1 1

If freezing produces immobility, then thawing involves freeing up the body's natural
movement. Just as restoring circulation after frostbite can produce intense pain and
must be done slowly, so, too, with release from the traumatic effects of immobility. The
more pervasive the block, the greater the trauma, and the greater the energy that is
stored there. Release must be done slowly and with great care.

To avoid overwhelming the nervous system, it is important to first establish some kind of
anchor or ground that can be accessed when the going gets rough. This can be a safe
and familiar memory, a body position that feels comfortable, or a connection with an
inner source of power, either real or imagined. When the dam in the stream is removed,
there can be such a rush of energy that we need a big rock to hold onto to keep from
being washed too quickly downstream. Anchoring the energy as it is released grounds it
into the solidity of chakra one. This is done by translating emotion into sensation and
impulse. "When you feel this rage, what are the sensations in your body?" "What do

your hands want to do with this energy?" Anchored in the sensation of the body, the
energy can move upward into consciousness to find meaning. "Is this rage similar to the
rage directed at you from your father when you were a child?" "Can you see this shame
as a result of your abandonment, rather than your level of achievement?"
It is also important to proceed slowly, reintegrating different parts of the experience
piece by piece. Levine calls this slow integration titration. Titrating combines chemicals
a little bit at a time, in amounts too small to explode. In this way, the whole volume
comes together without mishap. In traumatic situations, the nervous system needs to
gradually stabilize its reaction to the event. Small pieces that the nervous system can
handle without getting overwhelmed can eventually lead to complete healing. This is a
complex procedure, and is described in Peter Levine's book, Waking the Tiger: Healing
Trauma through the Body.

/idual who has enduring repeated traumatic encounters will be susceptible to a
sense of guilt that he himself is somehow responsible for causing the
a — no matter what it is. Guilt is a nearly universal imprint left by trauma.

WORKING THROUGH GUILT

Working through guilt begins with examining the forces that influenced our actions at a
given time. For the child who feels guilty about doing poorly in school, it is important to
recognize how volatile family situations may have prevented concentration in his
studies. For the person who feels guilty about feeling needy, it is important to determine
if needs were met in the past. Only by acknowledging past forces can we truly change
present behavior about which we feel guilty. This does not mean we should not take
responsibility for what we may have caused, but rather it allows us to see that
responsibility in its appropriate context. Here are some steps you can take to move
through guilt:

Put the guilty behavior in context. What were the forces acting on you at the
time?

Examine the motives, drives, and needs underlying your behavior. What were
you trying to satisfy or accomplish?

Look for ways that the behavior may have been modeled for you. (My mother
always handled arguments like this. That's how I was taught to get the job done.
My father never finished school.)

See how your underlying needs can be more directly and appropriately filled.

Take stock of any harm caused and find ways of making amends. If you are not

sure of how to make amends, you can usually ask. If the person who received

harm is no longer accessible, try to address the situation in a more global way.

Give money or time to a battered women's shelter. Pay for someone's therapy.

Help someone through school. Volunteer labor at a charity.

Make a plan for new behavior.

Forgive yourself and move on.
If you continue to be plagued by guilt for innocent behaviors such as pleasure or time to
yourself, then examine the belief system that supports those values by asking yourself
the following question s:

Healthy guilt is the emotional core of our conscience. It
behaving in a manner contrary to our beliefs and vali

JOHN BRADSHAW

What is the belief system that says, for example, that sex is bad, or that time alone is
selfish? What is its origin? Where did you learn it? Who does that belief serve?
What are the effects of the values inherent in that belief?
What is your own belief, and on what is it based?

What are the results of your actions? Is harm caused to yourself or others? How can

you get support for your actions if you believe them to be right?
EMOTIONAL WORK: RECLAIMING OUR RIGHT TO FEEL

Healing the second chakra involves reclaiming our right to feel. The first step in
reclaiming this right is to remove the guilt that blocks our feelings. We learn to see them
as natural responses to the situations that affect us.

The emotions related to abuse can be overwhelming and often conflicting. We may feel
both intense longing and betrayal, with a simultaneous urge to both reach out and
withdraw. We may feel expansive anger and contracting fear at the same time. We may
feel strong emotions at some times and numbness at others.

Emotions are the precursors to action (chakra three), so it is difficult to allow an emotion
to flow if the action it inspires is dangerous or frightening. For instance, if allowing
ourselves to feel our anger makes us want to kill someone, it can be dangerous to
experience the feeling. If experiencing the sadness of a past separation makes our
present solitude unbearable, we will find ways to avoid it. If feeling our need for
someone makes us subject to their abuse, we cannot acknowledge our need.
When the force behind an emotion builds up without being expressed or released, it
creates an emotional excess. We need to create a safe way to lessen emotional force
and allow it to be better contained and channeled. The energy of an emotion can be
channeled into appropriate movements or activities. I often use my anger to clean
house because when I am angry I have a lot of energy, but I cannot concentrate on
anything difficult. Grief can be channeled into writing poetry, fear into heightened
awareness, and longing into creative activities. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Feeling is the dimensional texture of experience. Without feelings, life is flat, experience
is empty, and meaning is elusive.

When emotions are excessive, we can shift our awareness to the sensations in our
body. Emotions want to move out, to take action and be recognized. We need to
balance that by moving in and paying attention to the self inside. By consciously
bringing our attention inward, the emotions soften and bring us a richer tapestry of
information and connection.
EMOTIONAL RELEASE— PROS AND CONS

In a world where repressed emotions are the cultural norm, it has often been the goal of
therapy to facilitate emotional release. Sometimes simple catharsis can bring about
profound healing and transformation. Simply letting go of something that has been long
held in the body can allow the body to reform itself in new ways. Emotional release does
not always bring healing, however. In some cases, where trauma is severe or emotional
patterns such as anger or tears are too well established, it may overwhelm the person,
create further feelings of helplessness, or drive the emotional grooves even deeper into
habitual response. When emotional release is simply a discharge of energy without
cognitive integration, it brings short-term relief, but seldom permanent change. The
person then seeks this release again and again.

Emotional release is the instinctual psychic movement from the unconscious to the
conscious, completing actions that have been interrupted. If we could not fully feel or
express our emotions the first time around, we create new situations where we can
feel them. Emotions held in the body fixate our energy in holding patterns, making it
unavailable to us. Once an emotion is released, we can reclaim that energy and create
a new orientation to the situation. Once we have grieved a death, we can let go. Once
we have acknowledged a fear, we can take steps to overcome it.
Emotional release fully involves the body. It is not enough for the head to simply
acknowledge sadness or anger. There is movement associated with each emotion, and
until the movement is freed up, the energy vortex of the emotion will remain. Many
clients come to me from other therapists who helped them considerably in
understanding their patterns and behavior in light of their history. They say, "I know my

sexual attitudes are a result of the abuse from my father. I've worked on it for years, but
it hasn't changed" Change is movement, and in order to create change there has to be
both internal and external movement in the body.

Blocked emotion is bound into the structure of the body. When I work to free up buried
feelings, I ask the person to exaggerate what I see her body doing unconsciously. If I
see her fidgeting, I ask her to exaggerate those movements. If I see her contracted, I
ask her to exaggerate the contraction. This brings unconscious movements and their
attendant feelings into consciousness. While she holds the exaggerated position I ask
her what kind of feeling this elicits. If an answer is not apparent, I ask her to verbalize
what her body is saying. Someone contracted might be saying, "Don't touch me."
Someone who is fidgeting might be saying, "I don't want to be here." I then ask her to
express the same statement or feeling through movement. "If you were on a stage and
had to express this feeling without any words, what would you do?" This embodies the
feeling, and simultaneously brings it into conscious awareness.

This process usually taps the natural flow of feeling in the body sooner or later. At this
point, I become a facilitator for the feeling. If there is anger, I give them a bat to hit the
couch. If it is sadness, I offer comfort and sympathy. If there is fear, I offer resources for
strength, invite movements that are opposite to the contraction, and stabilize their
energy through grounding techniques.
CONTAINMENT

As an Oral character with characteristic lack of charge, my early somatic therapists all
encouraged me to "get it out." I cried my tears, kicked and screamed, beat pillows, and
certainly freed up my energy flow. But as an essentially undercharged vessel, I was
simultaneously depleting myself and I lost some of my ability to tolerate and focus. I
found later that a more profound lesson for me was to learn to contain.
To contain our energy is to embrace our excitement bodily, to let feelings unfold within
our containing body and to let ourselves be formed by these feelings. By living with and
from our bodily feelings, they change us, culturing our love.

STANLEY KELEMAN

There are times when emotional release is not advisable. When the ground is too weak
to provide stability, safety, and containment, emotional release can leave one
disintegrated, rather than integrated. When past traumas are severe, the emotions of
rage or helplessness can retraumatize and trigger the nervous system into its familiar
traumatic stress patterns. When damaging emotional habits are a presenting complaint
(raging uncontrollably, crying too easily, feeling paralyzed by fears), it does not help to
dig these emotional habits into deeper grooves. When any of these factors are present,
it is better to facilitate containment and behavior modification than it is to release.
If the second chakra is excessive, balance is found by containment. Containment
means not acting immediately upon a feeling, urge, desire, or need. Often this
excessive behavior is an unconscious way to discharge energy before it can come fully
into consciousness, where it might be too threatening. Without containment, there is no
storage of energy and virtually no power.

Energy follows habitual paths of expression. Containment invites the creation of
alternative paths. If our habitual path of release is to have sex, take a drink, or yell at
someone whenever we feel anxious, then we become addicted to that activity and never
understand the anxiety or effectively resolve it. If we can learn to contain the anxiety, we
can find another way of resolving it.

Learning to contain does not mean that we deny or negate an experience. It is not a
willful mind-over-matter affair, but a conscious penetration of mind in matter.
Containment is a deeper focus of attention on the emotional process and where it is
trying to go. Learning to contain means that we allow the energy to fill up our tissues,
expand our sensation, and build our excitement. This way we get to keep our

excitement rather than spend it.

Jeannette had a habit of compulsively eating small snacks throughout the day. At the
slightest hint of frustration in her tasks at work, she would want to put something in her
mouth to distract her from her feelings. I asked her to sit with her feelings without her
"pacifier" and chart the sensations that arose. "I couldn't sit still. I wanted to pace the
office, throw things at my boss, pull out the phone plug, and yell at somebody." As we
worked through and resisted these discharging impulses, we became aware of the way
she felt small and had too much responsibility at too young an age. She did not have
the first chakra support necessary to accomplish the tasks that were expected of her.
Instinctively, she reached for food to give her extra energy and as a first chakra
substitute for support. Only by understanding the motivation underneath the action
could we plan more appropriate coping strategies. This understanding arose through
resisting the addictive impulses so that buried memories could come to consciousness.
Still water runs deep. Through containment our feelings reach greater depth. While we
do not want to become stagnant, a healthy second chakra has the ability to both
express and contain emotion as needed and appropriate. To contain is to build up the
energy for transformation, rather than disperse it and suffer depletion.
SEXUAL HEALING— COURTING EROS

It is unfortunate that our culture tries to separate sexuality from the rest of life. As the
cosmic force of connection leading toward union and expansion, it is paradoxical that
we remove sexuality from the conversation and activity of the rest of our lives. In so
doing we have encouraged sexual wounds to go unacknowledged and unhealed,
hidden by guilt and shame.

Sexual healing is not limited to what we do in bed, but involves our entire approach to
life. To achieve sexual healing is to engage with life fully on an emotional/sensate
level — to make love with our eyes and ears and noses; to embrace our yearning for
poetry, texture, and closeness; to become intimate with the subtle nuances of the inner
self. Sexual healing cannot occur in isolation, as healthy sex involves many levels of
consciousness. It cannot be separated from emotional healing, for it opens up the
emotions. It is essentially tied to the senses and the pull of yearning and desire. It
requires a fluid flow of energy in the body. To heal ourselves in each petal of the second
chakra lotus — emotion, desire, movement, sensation, pleasure, and need — is to

simultaneously heal our sexuality.

Eros is the binding element par excellence. It is the bridge between being and
becoming, and it binds fact and value together.

ROLLO MAY

Sexual healing requires a balance between containment and flow. Most mechanical
sexual dysfunctions, such as impotence, inability to reach orgasm, or premature
ejaculation, reflect a failure to either contain one's excitement or surrender to it. These
issues are energetic rather than merely sexual, and are usually reflected in the rest of
the personality. Addressing these energy patterns in the body armor may
simultaneously address the sexual problems.

Sexual healing involves moving from the mechanical activity of sex into the numinous
quality of Eros. Sexual healing involves reweaving the union of sexuality and Eros and
thus bringing sex back into the realm of the divine. Eros is a mysterious force, and the
courting of Eros requires surrender to the unknown. This requires a basic emotional and
physical security. Past wounds from invasions, rejections, and expectations dampen our
experience of Eros. They make us afraid of ourselves, afraid of opening, afraid to trust
the natural erotic impulse that unites psyche and soma, self and other, Heaven and
Earth in an arc of energy that joins and sparks each of the chakras. Healing emotional
wounds helps restore appropriate discrimination and trust so we can surrender to
feeling once again. Eros has no goal but to enhance and connect, but we must have the

trust and grounding of the first chakra and the emotional confidence of the second to
open fully to this enhancement.

Sex without Eros is empty and mechanical, functioning by a push from the will, which
often exhausts it. Sex with Eros nourishes the will. We become infused with energy,
inspired to change, learn, and reach beyond the limits we have previously accepted.
Sexuality infused with Eros brings the divine into the act of pleasure, drawing us upward
and outward.

Sexual healing, by nature, involves another person — a sacred lover with whom there is
trust and patience, understanding and skill. This is perhaps the most difficult element to
attain, since we cannot simply order up the appropriate lover. When dealing with sexual
issues, it is important to be able to stop at any point in the experience and have our
lover encourage us to process whatever we are feeling at the moment. When a partner
falls into numbness, mechanical routines, or fear, it is time to stop and say, "What are
you feeling right now? How can I help?" As sex brings us into the most intimate and
vulnerable experiences of our lives, the sexual arena is often where our deepest
feelings arise. This is profound ground for healing in general.

If a person is living a sexual life and living out of his sexual feeling, then a lot of life is

Nor is sexual healing limited just to the second chakra. The sexual experience
enhances and is affected by each of the other chakras. Our relationship to the health of
our bodies (staying in shape and in touch) is the important contribution from chakra one.
From the third chakra, a healthy ego and sense of power allows us to remain centered
and balanced in our engagement with others. The fourth chakra, with its emphasis on
relationships, has an obvious impact on sexuality. Healthy relationship with open hearts
and clear communication (chakra five) can only enhance sexual connection.
Imagination (chakra six) plays a powerful role in sexual enhancement, as does the
ability to experience sex as a spiritual union (seventh chakra).

Sexual healing brings the sacred back into the sexual act. It is a mutual worship of the
divine within, a restoring of wholeness through the unfolding of pleasure, and a
nourishment of the soul in preparation for the rest of the journey across the Rainbow
Bridge.

In our journey from base to crown, the second chakra is the prime mover of energy in
the chakra system. As the vital forces begin their journey upward, the soul is carried on
the currents of emotion and desire toward growth. If we have a secure base, we are
able to yield to this inner flow of prana (vital energy) and follow its natural course
without losing our center. Analogous to the water element of this chakra, we need to be
moved by the currents but not drown in them. It is water that makes things grow, move,
and change. Water makes life juicy.

A balanced second chakra has a deep emotional core that is grounded enough to be
contained and open enough to flow and connect. Healing our wounds in this chakra
creates the necessary emotional depth for developing true power, compassion,
creativity, insight, and awareness — all aspects that are ahead of us on the chakra
journey.

STANLEY KELEMAN

CHAKRA THREE

Burning Our Way into Power

THIRD CHAKRA AT A GLANCE

ELEMENT

Fire

NAME

Manipura (lustrous gem)

PURPOSE

Transformation

ISSUES

Energy

Activity

Autonomy

Individuation

Will

Self-esteem

Proactivity

Power

COLOR

Yellow

LOCATION

Solar plexus

IDENTITY

Ego identity

ORIENTATION

Self-definition

DEMON

Shame

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE

18 months to 4 years

DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS

Realization of separateness

Estabishment of autonomy

BASIC RIGHTS

To act and be an individual

BALANCED CHARACTERISTICS

Responsible, reliable

Balanced, effective will

Good self-esteem, balanced ego-strength

Warmth in personality

Confidence

Spontaneity, playfulness, sense of humor

Appropriate self-discipline

Sense of one's personal power

Able to meet challenges

TRAUMAS AND ABUSES

Shaming

Authoritarianism

Volatile situations

Domination of will

Physical abuse, dangerous environment, fear of punishment
Enmeshment

Age inappropriate responsibilities (parentified child)
Inherited shame from parent
DEFICIENCY
Low energy

Weak will, easily manipulated

Poor self-discipline and follow-through

Low self-esteem

Cold, emotionally and/or physically

Poor digestion

Collapsed middle

Attraction to stimulants

Victim mentality, blaming of others

Passive Unreliable

EXCESS

Overly aggressive, dominating, controlling

Need to be right, have last word

Manipulative, power hungry, deceitful

Attraction to sedatives

Temper tantrums, violent outbursts

Stubbornness

Driving ambition (type A personality)

Competitive

Arrogant

Hyperactive

PHYSICAL MALFUNCTIONS

Eating disorders

Digestive disorders, ulcers

Hypoglycemia, diabetes

Muscle spasms, muscular disorders

Chronic fatigue

Hypertension

Disorders of stomach, pancreas, gall bladder, liver
HEALING PRACTICES
Risk taking (deficiency)
Grounding and emotional contact
Deep relaxation, stress control (excess)
Vigorous exercise (running, aerobics, etc.)
Martial arts
Sit-ups

Psychotherapy: Build ego strength; release or contain anger; work on shame issues; strengthen the will;

encourage autonomy

AFFIRMATIONS

I honor the power within me.

I accomplish tasks easily and effortlessly.

The fire within me burns through all blocks and fears.

I can do whatever I will to do.

.SHADES

OF YELLOW

ne need only pick up the daily newspaper to see that we are a culture obsessed with

power. Headlines of violence, warfare, victimization, and dominance reveal a world
continually beset by conflict. Strength is often defined as dominance; sensitivity as
weakness. Taking time to consider important decisions is considered waffling, while
swift, bold strokes are touted as brilliant accomplishments. Political news reads more
like the sports page than as informed analysis: "President scores points over divided
Congress." "GOP wins seat over Democrats." "Loggers defeat environmentalists." We
put the hopes of many into the leadership of a few, remaining in passive helplessness
while those in whom we invest our power spend it fighting each other, creating
stagnation and political gridlock, or waging war.

Immersed in our own feelings of powerlessness, we are fascinated by the triumphs of
others, and glean a perverse satisfaction from following the continual struggles for
supremacy and control — over ourselves, other people, other nations, and Nature
herself — but always power over something.

What is power? Where do we get it? How do we use it? Why do we need it? How do we
avoid its unbalanced duality of victimization and abuse, aggression and passivity,
dominance and submission? Where do we find our own empowerment without
diminishing that of others? How do we reclaim, with full responsibility, enthusiasm, and
pride, our innate right to act, free from inhibition and shame?

These questions are central issues to anyone undergoing a healing process. Raised
into obedience by parents and teachers, trained for cooperation with larger corporate,
legal, military, and political power structures, we have become a society of victims and
controllers. In polarized, either- or thinking, we see power in terms of eat or be eaten,
control or be controlled, winners or losers, one up or one down.
The popular model of power that exists in today's world is one that can be described as
"power-over," based on struggle and opposition between dualities, where one side
eventually wins over the other side. In society, we see this in racism, sexism, classism,
agism, and almost any other "ism" we could name. Power is found with the guns and
the money, and our culture is obsessed with both. In a land where the American dream
is for each person to become, in the words of Laurence Boldt, a "little king," we see
power as having a dominion to rule over — the larger the dominion, the greater the
power. 1

In the inner world, the struggle continues. We think power is gained by fighting our
inferior parts with the strength of our superior parts. If the right side wins, then we have
a sense of power. If we lose, we feel powerless. We are asked to exert mind over
matter, to prove our strength by dominating our basic instincts, suppressing the raw
energy of the core self, which is the psychic source of our power. Struggle itself

becomes the focus of our life force.

It is not power we seek so much as the overcoming of victimization — the ability to
determine our own lives. For what greater responsibility than to allow the divine within
the freedom of its unique unfoldment?

There is no doubt that at times, winning this kind of inner battle is important. But the
victory of one part over another does not lead to wholeness, but further fragmentation.
Such battles rob the system of energy and usually reemerge to be fought again and
again. It is no wonder that the recovery movement is full of victims, scapegoating their
evil persecutors, hoping to regain their lost power, not always realizing that we are all
victims of an oppressive social system, of cultural values that belittle us, and of an
outdated concept of power itself. We have lost the sense of our own sacredness; lost
contact with the power within.

To restructure the way we think of power and to channel and contain that power within
our own being is the challenge of the third chakra. It transforms us, igniting our life with
purpose. To have true power emanating from within renews the joy of being alive.
What is needed to reclaim our power is to enter into an entirely new dynamic, a new

definition of power that lifts us out of struggle and into transformation, out of the past
and into the future, one that inspires, strengthens, and empowers individuals without
diminishing others.

The dynamics of power within the chakra system are also built on duality, but in a way
that emphasizes combination and synergy rather than separation and struggle. Raw
energy is created from a combination of the first and second chakras' attributes of
matter and movement. The expression of that energy as action is motivated by survival
and pleasure, the instinctual forces that combine to create our ascending liberating
current.

Transforming the instinctual impulses into willed activity is made possible by the
descent of consciousness, which gives form and direction through understanding as it
meets and mediates the ascending current of liberation (see figure 3.1). When the
ascending and descending currents combine, the raw energy of power is focused into
activity. Only through this combination do we realize that the true purpose of power is
transformation.

So we enter the third chakra through the gates of duality. By successfully integrating
both sides of polarity, we emerge into a third realm that simultaneously includes and
transcends polarity by creating a new dynamic. Here we reach beyond the oscillating
realms of either-or — win/lose, black/white — and enter the rainbow realm of multiplicity.
Once we have ventured out toward the middle of the Rainbow Bridge, our choices
expand, our horizons widen. As our options increase, so do our strength and our
freedom.

As we exercise choice, we initiate the will. Through exercising our will, we develop our
individuality, discover our strengths and weaknesses, and begin to build the power that
will steer our lives. We leave the realm of safety and security, carrying our safety within
the ground of our own body. So many people in recovery are understandably concerned
about feeling safe. But power is not created from staying safe; power comes from the
willingness to leave the world of safety and move forward into the unknown. As we meet
challenge, it strengthens us by forcing us to grow. Power, like a muscle, will not
increase by doing nothing.

In the chakra system as a whole, the purpose of the third chakra is to transform the
inertia of matter and movement into a conscious direction of willed activity. Earth and
water are passive and dense. They move downward. Chakras one and two are
instinctual. They follow the paths of least resistance. The fire of chakra three is dynamic
and light, rising upward, moving away from gravity. This change is necessary to reach
the upper chakras and complete our journey.

The liberating
current frees up

energy as f om "
dissolved. The
manifesting current
brings new form
through conscious-
ness directing the
force so that it
becomes power.

Manifesting current brings
intention of form.

Combination
brings, power.

Liberating current
brings rnuf energy.

Figure 3.1. Combination of Vertical Currents and Third Chakra Level
We must be willing to leave passivity behind. We must be willing to leave the way it has
always been, to transform our habits, set a new course and enter chakra three. We
must be willing to individuate — to step out of the familiar and expected and confront the
challenge of uncertainty. "Thus to be independent of public opinion is the first formal
condition of achieving anything great," says Hegel. 2 "You must be the change you wish
to see in the world," says Gandhi. 3

Friction makes sparks. Fire transforms matter to heat and light, and gives us the ability
to see and to act. Fire awakens us from our passive slumber, sparking consciousness
into understanding. Understanding tempers the fire, binding raw energy into power,
direction, and transformation. Thus we enter the fiery yellow section of our Rainbow
Bridge on the unfolding journey from matter to consciousness.

UNFOLDING IHJ

Basic

Issues of the Third Chakra
Energy
Activity
Autonomy
Authority
Individuation

Will
Self-Esteem

Shame
Proactivity
Power

Energy and Actmty

If our grounding is strong and solid and the natural flow of emotion and movement is not

thwarted, then we have the means to convert energy into action. As we continue to
receive input from our surroundings, the energy within the system builds and begins,
like any open system, to need reorganization, expression, and discharge.
Increased excitation is perceived as an urqe to orqanize feelinq int

The natural expression of this energy is activity. It engages us with our surroundings,
allowing us to charge and discharge our excitement. It teaches us about the world and
about ourselves. Activity can invite delight or disaster depending on its results. As we
mature, we begin to choose which impulses to act upon and which ones to control. Thus
begins the emergence of a conscious self where mind acts upon instincts, the
emergence of personal responsibility, and the birth of the ego.

A healthy third chakra exhibits energetic vitality. There is enjoyment and enthusiasm
about life. Our sense of personal power gives us hope that we can make things viable
for ourselves, and with this positive outlook we are not afraid to venture into the
unknown, to take risks, or to make mistakes. When our energy field is strong, we do not
get bogged down by obstacles. We do not lose our direction when challenged, but go
forth with strength and will. We enjoy engaging in activity, tackling challenges, and
grappling with the world. Activity develops our sense of power through constant
presentation of new challenges.

JOSEPH CAMPBEL

When activity meets with shame and disapproval, however, then it diminishes our sense
of power. We distrust our abilities and fear the consequence of our own energy. To
avoid further shame, we inhibit our impulses and become constricted and self-
conscious. We lose our spontaneity and playfulness. Unable to trust our own basic
impulses and needing to constantly monitor what comes from within, the personality
becomes divided against itself. It takes energy to maintain this division, a loss that robs
us of our basic vitality and wholeness.
Autonomy

The progression from lower to higher chakras is a progression from individuality to
universality. We begin in a merged state, then separate ourselves and become
independent, eventually to emerge again into a larger world, this time as a conscious
individual.

We can think of the first three chakras as the lower gears of the system. They keep us
grounded and engaged, motivated and active. They preserve the individual self as it
interacts with the world. The upper chakras connect us to the universal through
communication, vision, and understanding. Looking ahead, we see that at the heart
chakra we make a quantum leap into the middle of the Rainbow Bridge to a place where
the individual and universal meet in perfect balance. But before this meeting can occur,
we need a firm grasp of ourselves as a separate, unique individual. Without a strong
sense of self, our love is still an unconscious merging. Without our unique individuality,
we get overwhelmed by the vastness of the universal.

I recently counseled a nineteen-year-old woman who was in a borderline psychotic state
one month after a strong LSD experience. She had seen a parade of her past lives, a
display of archetypal energies, a wide-eyed view of the cosmos. But her individual ego
was still so unformed that she completely lost who she was in this journey. She was
overwhelmed and lost from her ground in the limitless upper chakras. Simple grounding
exercises produced a profound change in consciousness and brought her back to
herself, at least temporarily. Returning to a solid sense of herself took time and much
reconstruction.

In much of the New Age and spiritual movement, personal ego and autonomy are
frowned upon along with sexuality, passion, desire, need, and the sacredness of the

body. While letting go of attachment and transcending the smallness of the ego are
essential steps for obtaining a universal consciousness, this achievement is pure
diffusion and possibly escape if we lack a healthy ego to support such transcendence.
Therefore, autonomy becomes a necessary third chakra achievement. Without
autonomy, we cannot get to the heart, for our love comes from need rather than
strength, a desire to escape rather than to expand. A balanced relationship allows the
persons involved to be separate beings, retain their individuality, follow their own
growth, and come together by choice and by will, in freedom and wholeness. This right
cannot be granted by a partner (or anyone else for that matter) if we do not first have it
within ourselves.

Autonomy is essential for personal responsibility. If we cannot see ourselves as
separate beings, we cannot take responsibility for our actions. We remain passive and
irresponsible, often whining and complaining about the state of our affairs, ruled by the
transitory whim of the group, the culture, our partners, or parents.
Lack of autonomy is often characterized by blaming. If we still blame others for our
problems, we have not yet individuated. This is often seen in couples who are overly
enmeshed with each other. Blaming places both will and responsibility outside
ourselves. If we are grounded in our autonomy, then we are the cause of our lives and
we are able to take appropriate responsibility and power. Only when we take
responsibility can we really make change. If it is someone else's fault, we can only wait
for them to change. We might wait forever.
Individuation

The soul's journey toward realization is a process that Carl Jung called individuation. It
is a journey toward wholeness and awakening, a journey across the Rainbow Bridge.
On this journey the person awakens from the small world they previously inhabited to
embrace the larger world of the personal and collective unconscious by reclaiming their
shadow, their inner masculine and feminine, and their connection with mythic and
archetypal energies. The purpose of individuation is to integrate previously undeveloped
aspects of oneself into a larger, comprehensive Self that is simultaneously personal
and universal.

As the lower realms of the first and second chakras are largely unconscious and
correspond to the child's merged state with the mother and family, the third chakra
becomes the point where the individuation process really begins. It is here that the ego
awakens and begins to differentiate from outer expectations. What has been largely a
passive experience now becomes a willed enactment. To individuate, we must break
away from the gravitational fields of earth and water, mother and father, group and
society and bring forth the unique, divine individual that lives within.
The individuation process, however, cannot be grasped in its deepest essence, for it is

The third chakra aspect of individuation involves overcoming unconscious habits that
allow us to be defined by others. Here we break away from internalized parents, peers,
and culture, and begin to define ourselves. It is about daring to be unique, risking
disapproval for the integrity of your own truth. Individuation is the unfolding of our
unique destiny, the unfolding of the soul. We cannot change the world if we have not yet
individuated from the way the world expects us to be. We cannot truly claim our power

without a willingness to individuate.

Our ego consciousness might well he enclosed within a more complete consciousness
like a smaller circle within a larger.

Jung's concept of individuation parallels the adult developmental process through the

C.G.JUNG

chakras. Where Jung thought that individuation began in the heart chakra, with the
integration of the inner masculine and feminine (animus and anima), I believe it begins
with the third chakra birth of psychic autonomy. Many people do not awaken this chakra
at all, and spend their whole lives following the path of least resistance, giving their
power to others, and defining themselves in terms of what is expected. They remain in
the less differentiated aspects of the lower chakras. Damage to the lower chakras or
lack of developmental completion keeps us from maturing to this point, and keeps us
from true psychic freedom.
Ego Identity

After we identify with our physical body and our emotional experience, we begin to form
an autonomous new identity. This marks the birth of the ego — a conscious realization
of oneself as a self-determining separate entity.

Freud first postulated the ego when he divided the personality into three major
components: the id, representing our innate biological and instinctual drives; the
superego, representing the consciousness that controls these drives; and the ego,
which mediates between the two. The ego manages the division between conscious
and unconscious, interior and exterior, and operates the gates between the many
worlds of the Self.

Jung saw the ego as the conscious element of the Self. This does not necessarily
include our unconscious hopes and dreams, fantasies and fears. Since the ego is, by
definition, unaware of the unconscious, it is not the center of the whole Self but acts as
an operating principle, combining inner and outer experience. The ego is an organizer
of instinctual energies.

John Pierrakos, in Core Energetics, defines the ego in terms of somatic energy, calling
it "the human faculty that mediates the flow of energy out of and into the core of the
human being. It is the faculty which chooses, discriminates, analyzes, and regulates the
flow of energy and experience. "4

In terms of chakras, the ego is an organizer of instinctive energy coming up from
chakras one and two as it combines with consciousness coming down from above. We
shape the ego with consciousness. Life energy is its substance.

The ego functions as an executive identity, or CEO of the Self. It sorts out which
impulses to express or repress and orients the movement of our energy toward a goal.
The ego forms the statement of who we are, the statement we make to the world. It
creates defenses to protect the vulnerable, core Self and develops the strategies and
behaviors to meet the needs of that core self as it grows and develops. Finally, the ego
organizes consciousness toward self-definition.

A well-functioning ego has a tough job. It must allow guidance by core energies that are
largely unconscious while still considering the transpersonal, spiritual energies that are
beyond normal consciousness, all while keeping the Self consistent, safe, engaged, and
effective in the mundane world. This requires ego strength. A strong ego is able to
integrate diverse and difficult experiences and maintain consistency in the Self.
Yet the ego divides as well as unites, for it sequesters the less favorable instinctual
energies into the shadow realm. While the ego is oriented toward love and
achievement, its shadow is made of those elements that seem to interfere with this.
Thus the ego creates the division between conscious and unconscious, between
shadow elements of the lower chakras and the developing persona that emerges in the
fourth chakra. The good news is that because the ego creates the initial division, it can
also integrate. Thus, our concept of Self becomes a container for the work of
individuation. It spurs us onward to act in the world, and inward to pick up lost pieces.
The Self is born, but the ego is made; and in the beginning of all is Self.

EDWARD EDINGER

Individuation is an expansion of the Self beyond the realms of the ego, yet the ego is

necessary to anchor this growth. The word ego is a combination of the Greek roots for
"I" (e) and "earth" {go). Thus the ego is the grounded self, the individualized roots of
consciousness.

The ego is like a house. It is where we live. It contains us, gives us a place to grow and
change, and creates boundaries, which are necessary for forming ourselves as an
entity. It balances energy in the system, keeping us in homeostasis. Many spiritual
disciplines advise us to transcend the ego, and consider it something bad, limiting, or
false. The problem of ego is not that it is limiting — but that we let ourselves be confined
by it at all times. We stay confined out of fear, guilt, or shame, and never go outside to
the larger world, never open our windows and doors. It is not wrong to have a home, but
it should be an anchor for experience, not a limitation. Keeping this in perspective
enables us to both have a strong ego and transcend it as well. ^^^^^^^^^^^^
The striking thing about love and will in our day is that, whereas in the past they were
always held up to us as the answer to life's predicaments, they have now themselves
become the problem.

Will

A woman in my chakra therapy group volunteered to work on third chakra issues. When
her turn came around, she looked at me and said, "OK, tell me what I'm supposed to
do." This defined her problem more than anything that followed. She had addressed
something outside herself to tell her what she was supposed to do in relation to her
own needs, even before those needs were stated. How many of us dutifully live our
lives the way we are "supposed to," forever looking outside ourselves for clues without
questioning the source of those suppositions? "Supposed to, according to what?" I
asked her in return.

"Well, I thought you had some kind of process in mind for me," she answered.

"I'm more interested in the process you're already in. I can only assist you in removing

what blocks it."

"But, I don't know what that is."

"Believing there is a way already prescribed for you might be a big part of it. Look
instead at what you want and need. There's your fuel for the will. Your passion and
desire give it strength and direction."

From here we proceeded to work on what happened to her will as a child — how it was
thwarted, how she was punished for acts of autonomy, and how her maternal role
model was one of a selfless people pleaser. Learning to recognize the true will did not
come easily at first. The question, "What would I do if there was nothing I was
supposed to do?" often meets with a mysterious blank when first considered.
As children we were rewarded for doing what we were "supposed to do" and punished
when we don't comply. At a crucial time of developing autonomy, our will becomes
structured by things outside ourselves, without regard for the needs and direction of the
Self within. We are trained to be obedient. Obedience requires will, but it is will given to
another, or disembodied will. It no longer originates in our own body, but in someone
else's — our parent's body, our lover's, the school, corporation, or military body. The will
we cannot claim opens us to manipulation by others.

Obedience removes us from responsibility as we are just following orders. If the orders
are wrong, it's someone else's fault. When we accept obedience as a habit or given, we
become like slaves. We forget to question. We drop bombs on innocent people because
those are our orders. We casually dump our lovers without thinking about how it feels,
because that's how our buddies do it. We accept what we see without questioning

whether there is another way.

The human will is intensity of desire raised to the level of action.

J(

The answer is not to become willful individualists simply seeking our own satisfaction,
as pure selfishness is equally damaging. We remain trapped in the smaller ego self,
unable to enter the yielding love of the heart chakra.

Yet unless this cooperation is voluntary, meaning that it comes from our own will, it has
no real power or enthusiasm. Without the supporting desire from the chakra below, we
become meek and obedient automatons, empty of vitality and authenticity. In
suppressing our will, we invite its shadow, which is either passive-aggressive sabotage
or reactive rebellion rather than strategic action.

Rollo May, in his classic book Love and Will, asks what underlies the disordered will: "I
believe it is a state of feelinglessness, the despairing possibility that nothing matters, a
condition very close to apathy."5 He goes on to describe will as "the capacity to
organize one's self so that movement in a certain direction or toward a certain goal may
take place."6 Its foundation is wish, the second chakra longing for what we are
missing. Desire fuels the will; consciousness descending from above gives it direction
and form through intentionality. There is no will without intention — only whim.
Our longing points us toward the future. It is no coincidence that the word will is used
in the future tense of all English verbs: I will go, I will talk to them, I will finish my
book. It is through the will that we bring that future into reality.

It is interesting to note that the third chakra is located in the softest part of the torso.
There are no bones in the front of the solar plexus. This means that the only thing that
holds our body upright, with our chakras aligned on top of each other, is an act of will
from the energetic source of the body. When self-esteem is low, when the will is broken,
when we are tired and have no vitality, then this area of the body collapses. The chakra
is not full enough to support the upper body. Without this support, the chest collapses,
restricting our air intake, the head comes out of alignment with the body, and the knees
lock, throwing us out of our true ground. It is helpful when developing the will to do
exercises such as sit-ups that strengthen the stomach muscles and support this
vulnerable part of the torso.
Self^Esteem

When one feels that it is a catastrophic event to have been wrong, one is led to avoid
choice and decision. The development of an individual personality is therefore stifled.

EDWARD WHITMONT

Energetic vitality requires self-esteem. With a basic trust in ourselves, we can better
face the unknown. We have a sense of self that does not fall apart when things go
wrong, that can still maintain consistency in the face of challenge. For a healthy ego, it's
OK to make mistakes. For a shame-bound personality, there is no room to err, and
expansion is severely restricted. How can we reach and grow if we can't make
mistakes? And without growth, how can we develop a sense of our own power? When
self-esteem is low, we have a paralyzing uncertainty where there should be confidence
and power.

In the many years of my practice, I have seldom found much correlation between high
self-esteem and accomplishment. Often the people with successful careers,
extraordinary looks, or loads of money had the lowest self-esteem. Those with healthier
self-esteem seem to be the ones with fewer expectations and more permission to
simply live. Those who treated themselves well, took care of their bodies, were
connected to their feelings, and allowed themselves pleasure had higher esteem
because they felt better. They filled themselves by attending to simple first and second
chakra issues. Feeling full, they felt confident. They had energy. Their sense of self was
less defined by external accomplishments because there was a tangible presence
inside. Conversely, if self-worth is high, we are more likely to take care of ourselves.
Shame as a healthy human emotion can be transformed into shame as a state of being.
As a state of being, shame takes over one's whole identity. To have shame as an

Shame

Shame is the demon of the third chakra. It is inversely proportional to personal
power — the greater the shame, the less we feel powerful and the harder it is for the ego
to form itself. Shame blocks the liberating current and prevents energy rising from the
lower chakras from forming into effective action. We feel ashamed of ourselves, and
hence of our basic instincts, which must then be controlled by the mind. As a result,
shame-bound personalities feel stuck and may fall into patterns of compulsive repetition
and addiction.

When the ascending, liberating current gets stuck at the third chakra, the manifesting,
downward current of consciousness is increased. The mind runs the show, binding the
biological energy into controlled patterns, creating the term shame-bound. Shame-
bound people honor their thoughts more than their instincts, especially the internal
voices that constantly tell them how worthless and inferior they are. Spontaneity is
limited by internal scrutiny, which binds and disempowers the will.
As natural instincts can never be fully repressed, they periodically erupt in shadow
forms that only increase the sense of shame and inadequacy. When we misbehave,
lose our temper, fall apart, or have lapses in our vigilant self-control, we are driven to
deeper shame. Examples include the dieter or substance user who repeatedly binges
or the entrepreneur who sabotages work and success through procrastination and
passive-aggressive behavior. The block in the will keeps the downward current from
entering the second chakra with its orientation toward pleasure, so these activities
seldom have any real pleasure to them. Shame finds its penance in suffering, and the
need to recreate misery and failure keeps one in a very unhappy false state of
equilibrium.

PROACnVTTY

It is not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.

STEVEN R. COVEY

Janet was concerned that she would not get the promotion she wanted. As she was
scarcely able to live on her current salary, this promotion was very important to her. At
first she worried herself sick over it, but then she became proactive. Rather than waiting
to be interviewed, she reversed the tables and interviewed her boss about his vision for
the company. She spent additional time talking to people relevant to the new position,
courting their favor for recommendations. She anticipated the needs that would arise in
replacing her current position and took the initiative to find coworkers who were
interested and began training them. With all this work, she did, indeed, get the
promotion she wanted.

Steven R. Covey, in his best-selling book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,
has popularized the term proactivity, which is used largely in management seminars.
Being proactive is an alternative to being reactive (third chakra excess) or inactive
(third chakra deficiency). Proactivity is about choosing your actions, rather than
controlling or being controlled by them. Proactive people take responsibility for shaping
their future, for initiating behavior that will create the situations they want. A proactive
person does not wait to see what will happen. Being proactive means you are a
causative influence on your environment rather than a victim of its circumstances.
Proactivity requires initiative and will.
Power

All these attributes add up to personal power. From the Latin root podere, meaning "to
be able," power is the ability to make change and exists for one reason
only — transformation. When the old has outgrown its purpose, it is time to transform it

into something new. Power is not a thing, but a way. It is a process of becoming real.
The terrain of the mysteries is the edge where power encounters power, for mystery is

We have power when we dare to live authentically, when we reach inside ourselves and
tell the naked truth. The more we dare to take risks, to question, to be true to ourselves,
the easier it becomes. Power comes when we are willing to make mistakes and to be
responsible for them, to learn from them, and to correct them.

Power is the expression of the sacred in its evolutionary unfolding. Power is the
awesome presence of the divine. Power is the mystery, the unknown, the confrontation
with the other. Power is the transition from the past to the future. In order to escape the
narrow traps of personal limitation and approach the magnificent expanse of totality we
must reclaim our power. Power is the ability to determine our own destiny. Only in a
path of uniqueness can the vital energy uncoil and pierce the regions of the unknown.
Only with power can we move aside the obstacles that keep us imprisoned, enslaved,
and unconscious.

Power begins with what is. Earth, as matter, is the container, movement is the means.
Our bodies are the vehicle, our emotions its fuel, making the third chakra the engine. If
we are to rise above these planes, we must carry them with us as we integrate new
understanding. Earth and water anchor us in reality, forming the container that allows
the alchemical fire to burn bright and hot. They are the crucible of transformation.

I was a single mother when my son was in his third chakra stage. How well I
remember the challenge of getting both Alex and myself ready each morning. When
Alex was younger, I had always made morning a period of quality time and he had
come to expect it. Now immersed in his third chakra, our mornings became a battle of
wills. He knew I needed to hurry and he knew how to get me. He would stall while

GROWING

THE LOTUS

Developmental Formation of the Third Chakra at a Glance

AGE

1 8 months to 4 years
TASKS

Development of autonomy
Development of language
Impulse control
Mastery of holding on and letting go
Toilet training
Self-definition
NEEDS AND ISSUES
Appropriate discipline
Support of autonomy
Confidence and encouragement
Play

getting dressed by hiding his shoes after I had put them on. He would play with his food
or throw it on the floor and then ask for more. He glorified in the word no, giggling
gleefully at his new found power over Mom. My own third chakra ached as I fought the
urge to scream at him, instead willing myself into the loving patience that only a parent
can understand.

This stage, therefore, becomes decisive for the ratio of love and hate, cooperation and
willfulness, freedom of self-expression and its suppression. From a sense of self-control
without loss of self-esteem comes a lasting sense of good will and pride; from a sense
of loss of self-control and of foreign overcontrol comes a lasting propensity for doubt
and shame.

ERIK ERIKSON

This story is typical for one of the most challenging stages of parenting — the "terrible
twos." Here we have an emerging autonomy that is still immersed in dependency. The
child begins to feel separate, yet wants constant assurance that the parent will still be
there. He wants to do things for himself, but most tasks are too difficult to do alone. He
wants to exert his will for the sheer pleasure of it without discretion about how to use
that will. The challenge of this stage is to develop impulse control. Though difficult, the
proper handling of this stage is crucial for self-esteem, personal autonomy, and a strong
will — all aspects of a healthy third chakra.

This tumultuous passage begins when the anxiety of separating from the mother starts
to decrease, allowing a new level of independence. At this point language abilities have
progressed to the point where simple two to three word sentences are used. Both of
these landmarks occur between eighteen and twenty-four months. We have safely
reached the other side when the child has weathered the stubborn storm of
egocentricity and emerges as a relatively cooperative individual at approximately three
years.

Consciousness continues to filter down from the upper chakras as we develop up from
the bottom. We recall that the seventh chakra awareness initiated motor development in
chakra one. Images from the sixth chakra motivated feeling and movement in chakra
two. Now the development of language (fifth chakra) instills concepts that enable the
mind to operate on the impulses and behavior rising up from the physical/emotional
body giving us the capacity for personal will in chakra three. In other words, connection
between language and action is established, which gives us the potential for impulse
control. The child can understand a statement such as "Don't hit your brother," and then
try to hold that concept to curb his aggressive impulses. He can remember the phrase
"stove is hot," and decide not to touch it. Having moved past the natural limits imposed
by infancy, the child must now internalize appropriate limits, which occurs through
internalization of language. As these concepts get established, there may be a lot of
testing going on that helps the child establish the language-action connection. Is
pushing the same as hitting? How close can he get to the stove without getting burned?
Does no really mean no?

With language comes a sense of past, present, and future, enabling him to control,
postpone, plan, or reflect upon activities. He now begins to conceptualize cause and
effect. If he uses the potty, Mommy is pleased. If he eats his vegetables, he will get
dessert. If he touches the stove, he gets burned. We cannot control impulses without a
concept of time.

Prior to this point the child has been reflexive and absorbing, rather than initiating. The
sense of identity developed in the first and second chakras is a given identity. A
comfortable, well-fed body, or a hungry, abused body; a calm emotional environment or
a volatile one — these are elements over which we have no control but which,
nevertheless, form the ground for our being. They are the prima materia, the raw
material from which we create ourselves. It is from this given field that we individuate.

As the child learns to control and direct her impulses, she develops her will. The ego
identity develops by sorting through the impulses and instincts coming up from the lower
chakras and deciding which ones to activate. As mentioned earlier, the ego now
becomes the mediator between the shadow and the developing persona. The ego sorts
these out according to its growing definition of Self. If Mary gets punished for getting
angry, her rebellious, angry self will become a shadow part of her, while her pleasing
and quiet side may become a central part of her persona. Her ego, as the inner
executive, decides which parts of the personality are "hired" and which ones are
"fired" — we cultivate the parts that do the job we are expected to do.
Much of this struggle for control and self-mastery gets played out in the arena of toilet
training. Often a struggle of wills between the parent and child, toilet training involves
learning to control muscles previously allowed to respond in the moment. This requires
the mastery of two basic energetic principles: holding on and letting go. The
coordination of these principles establishes patterns for life, which become hardwired
into the character structure.

If one is shamed for messing oneself or is toilet trained too soon, then letting go
becomes fused with shame. One feels that what is within them is somehow bad, and
must be controlled and withheld at all times. If one is invaded or forced to let go against
natural timing (as through enemas or commands to perform on schedule), then holding
on becomes an act of defiance, and letting go an act of submission. These fundamental
energetic expressions are then no longer part of emerging autonomy, but are dictated
by the authority figure. Holding on and letting go become externally regulated. We
become ruled by others, even on the level of our own muscular response, and we move
away from our own spontaneity and lose some of our vitality and joy. If the child's innate
sense of timing is respected and supported, however, then she learns to trust her own
inner control over her bodily expression, literally and figuratively. The result is self-
confidence.

Erik Erikson named this stage autonomy vs. shame and doubt, meaning that we come
through it with either autonomy or shame and doubt, depending on how this and
previous stages are handled. Without autonomy, we are destined to feel shame, which
makes us doubt our actions, constantly monitoring the free flow of power through our
system. According to Erikson, the successful handling of this stage gives us the
distinctly third chakra characteristics of power and will.

As the muscles mature, the ability to cause destruction develops along with the ability
for self-control. A child can knock a lamp off the table in frenzied activity and she can
learn to control the urge to hit her sister. The child's task is to learn appropriate self-
control without losing spontaneity, confidence, or joy in expressing her impulses. When
shame and doubt prevail, autonomy is curtailed. We grow up to be defined and
controlled by others.

When the lower chakras are unfulfilled and their tasks are not completed, individuation
may not happen. If the mother does not provide enough mothering or trust, or if the
emotional environment is so enmeshed or volatile that the child is consumed by it, then
there is no individuation. In some cases, there may be separation or even rebellion, but
resistance to control is not the same as freedom from it. As long as we resist, we remain
shaped and determined by the force we oppose. Rollo May states, "If will remains
protest, it stays dependent on that which it is protesting against. Protest is half-
developed will. "7

This stage marks the earliest emergence of one's autonomy (however awkward or
tentative it may be) and parents can easily thwart or encourage this process. If we deny
our child the right to act or assert herself as an autonomous being, then we lead her to
question that right throughout her life. If autonomy is thwarted at this crucial stage (as it
is for so many through punishment, shaming, and overcontrol), then the individuation

process gets bound up in either resistance or submission and never fully develops. We
either hold on too tightly or let go too readily. The fire of spontaneity and joy is
diminished, the will is weakened, and the senses of personal power and responsibility
are undermined. The result is a deficient third chakra that cannot support the upper
chakras adequately and is blocked from both solid manifestation and the full realization
of consciousness.

If, on the other hand, a child's will is overly indulged without discretion or respect for
appropriate limits there is an inflation of the ego. Such children are said to "ride on the
shoulders of the parents" and have an inflated sense of their own power. They are
bound to fall many times in their lives, creating an oscillation between feelings of
inferiority and superiority. They lack the container, supplied by limits, that is necessary
for true manifestation. Expecting results immediately, they may lack the inner discipline
necessary to accomplish more difficult tasks, which give us a true sense of our power.
Therefore, if we want our children to grow up as autonomous individuals, to have power,
and to accept responsibility, we need to supply appropriate guidance without
suppressing the delicate, emerging ego. Like a new blade of grass, this ego is bravely
but tenderly pushing its first shoots above ground, reaching for the light of the heavens.
May we tread carefully, with patience and strength of will, giving it the nourishment it
needs to grow. And may patience and strength of will guide us in the process. They will
surely be needed.

TRAUMAS AND ABUSES

Claude Steiner, transactional analyst and radical therapist, once told the story of an

ordinary man — we can call him Carl — whose favorite pastime was to go to the park on a
sunny afternoon, sit down on a bench, and bask in the solar rays. One day as he sat
quietly on his bench (wearing his business suit), a large man wearing a uniform and
heavy boots came and stood in front of him, blocking the sun. Being a peaceful sort of
guy who did not like to make trouble, Carl merely moved over on the park bench so he
could once again feel the sun's rays on his face.

When what was done to me was done for my own good, then I am expected to accept
this treatment as an essential part of life and not question it.

ALICE MILLER

No sooner did he move than the uniformed man moved again to block the sun. Carl
moved again. So did the man. At this point, Carl spoke up and politely asked the man to
move aside. The man did not. Carl, getting angry now, tried to push him aside. The man
pushed him back on the bench and, with his heavy boot, stepped on Carl's foot and
mashed it into the ground. Carl, very angry now, began to scream obscenities, flailing
his arms at the man and yelling for help.

But his crying was in vain. No one came to his rescue. When Carl lifted his head and
looked around, he suddenly saw why. He saw that each person in the park had a
uniformed man standing in front of them. Many had boots stepping on their toes, while
others were chained to their benches. Most people on the benches were passively
sitting still, some were quietly reading, while others turned to stare at Carl
disapprovingly, scorning his childish and uncooperative outburst. None of the others
were complaining about the man on their foot — why should Carl? Their outrage was
aimed not at the man in the uniform but at Carl. He was living the self they had long
since rejected.

This is where the story ends, but we can all guess at possible outcomes. Did Carl

continue to yell and scream only to be chained to his bench with the key in someone
else's possession? Did he give up his rebellion and learn to sit quietly and passively like
his neighbors? Did he rally support and create an uprising in the park? Did he
transform his jailer? What would you have done?

We are held in our places within a culture where the personal loss of power is so
epidemic that no one hears the cries of loss and outrage. Instead we are ostracized for
acts of individuality, or, at best, feared. To keep our power over others, we often give up
our freedom and authenticity, and conform to expectations. This is a terrible loss, for it
obscures the unique divinity within ourselves that contains the seeds of evolution and
transformation. Those who have made this sacrifice expect others to do the same and
become highly offended when they do not. Straight men in their gray suits may be
offended by flamboyantly dressed gay men. The obedient wife is offended by the
militant feminism of her daughter. War veterans are offended by those who march for
peace.

In the wake of this loss, we have a civilization so obsessed with its lost power that it
spends enormous amounts of money and energy creating the shadow of power through
warfare and technology. We have complied with the master, internalized the controller,
and become accomplices in a polarized society whose main goal is to control more with
less. Numb to this pain, numb to our own powerlessness, numb to the repetitive tasks
believed necessary for our physical survival, we live with the emptiness inside
ourselves. Empty inside, our cultural myth tells us that power lies outside of ourselves in
the approval of others, in technological gadgets, or through a distant and authoritarian
god. Thus we deplete ourselves, our resources, and our planet, reaching for a power
outside, a power over, a power that will only enslave us.

What happened to our power? Why are we a culture so obsessed with it? Why is it so
important to our development, and how do we get it back?

STARHAWK

In order to answer these questions, we need first to understand how it was taken away.
Using our life energy to move forward is a natural outgrowth of thriving. It is not
instinctual to curtail our own expansion. It is, however, instinctual to protect ourselves.
Authority

Individuals in recovery today are fighting a legacy from previous generations that
believed in the ultimate authority of God over man, man over woman, and parent over
child. Children, at the bottom of the heap, were to be seen and not heard. A good child
was a quiet, obedient child who would never talk back to his parents. To spare the rod
was to spoil the child, and breaking the child's will was believed to be a kindness done
for his own good, in an effort to make him a useful member of society.
Elaborate measures may be taken to accomplish this, ranging from rejection and
coldness to verbal rage and physical beatings. Sometimes the unwitting child is made
an accomplice to such punishment — ordered to go out and cut the switch for his own
whipping, made to mumble unfelt apologies, or taught to tell lies in self-protection. Thus
our will is robbed and twisted, and then given back to us as an instrument in our own
oppression.

Child rearing beliefs that negate the safety and individuality of children ostensibly "for
their own good" are called poisonous pedagogy by Alice Miller. People spend years in
therapy trying to recover from the self-negating beliefs they thought were true — beliefs
about their own badness, about how they rightfully deserved such treatment. As long as
these beliefs remain they will be passed on to the next generation. Our culture is built
upon denying basic instincts. To support such behavior, we teach it to our children
before they have a chance to know anything different, and thus they become divided
against themselves and grow up to be divided against each other.

Authority is an issue that is present in everyone's life. As children we contend with the
authority of our parents, caretakers, older siblings, babysitters, and schoolteachers.
These models of authority influence how we respond to it, but even more important,
how we develop our inner authority. Only through inner authority do we organize and
focus our personal energy into an effective will. We may emulate or rebel against our
models of authority, but they shape our concept of power in subtle and profound ways.
To command our lives, we need this inner authority to have a solid presence. We need
a part inside that sends us to bed when we are tired, gets us up in time for work in the
morning, and firmly pushes us away from the table when we've had enough to eat or
drink. We need a part that holds this authority appropriately in the face of challenge and
can discern when to resist and when to yield to others. We need a part that can take us
by the hand and help us create our future. We need an internal organizing principle that
shapes, forms, and directs our growth.

Robert Bly, in Iron John, talks about this authority as an "inner King":

When we were one or two years old, the inner King, we would guess, was alive and

vigorous. We often knew what we wanted, and we made that clear to ourselves and to

others. Some families, of course, do not care what the children want.

For most of us, our King was killed early on. No King ever dies for good, but he falls

over and dies. When the inner warriors are not strong enough to protect the King — and

at two or three who could expect them to be? — he dies. 10

Until we consciously form this inner part of our personality, it will be formed by the
behavior of those who held authority over us. If our parent was a tyrant, our inner
authority will either be tyrannical or its opposite, a complete wimp. It may even shift
between the two at different times. If our parent was absent or passive, our inner
authority is likely to be equally vacant. If our parent controlled through criticism and
shaming, their critical voices will be etched into our minds and replayed ad nauseam, as
the background of every living moment. If our parents were deceptive and indirect, we
will be a master of avoidance and manipulation both to ourselves and others. The
gender of this person also affects the way we carry this power and where we project it
onto others. If it was our father who was authoritarian, we may project our fear onto
other men with whom we relate. Daughters may model themselves after their powerless
mother and project their father's authoritarianism onto their boyfriends.
To examine the influence of authority in your own life, ask yourself the following
questions:

■ Who was the central authority figure during your childhood? What means did they use to establish their
authority? How did you feel about this person? How did you feel about their authority? Did you obey out
of respect or fear?

■ How did you react to this authority? Did you rebel or obey, or did it vary at different times in your life? If
it varied, what circumstances influenced that change?

■ What form does the inner authority take in your life now? Who is it fashioned after? Do you cooperate
with it willfully or with resistance and resentment? Does this inner authority respect the feeling self, the
limitations of the body, and the need for expansion and growth? Where does this inner authority draw its
strength and what would bring it greater strength? How can you bring this authority into better alignment
with your life?

Punishment

When authority is won through respect it resonates with our inner truth. It invites us to
willingly participate because we believe in the reason and purpose behind it. I take a
workshop with a teacher I respect because I consider her an authority on a subject. I
can argue or question if need be. I go to an authority not to give away my power, but to
increase my own power and skill from another's expertise.
They can let you out of jail now, because they've put the jail inside your mind.

STARHAWK

Authority that tells us to go against our own nature resonates with something
deeper — fear. Fear regresses our third chakra will to the first chakra level of survival.

Our behavior is no longer an act of self-definition but of self-preservation. Rather than
move forward in action, we move backward in reaction. Punishment instills fear.
Punishment is used by authority for controlling behavior and robbing us of our free will.
It conditions us — like Pavlov's dog — to react automatically without thinking or
questioning. Punishment only works when the loss or pain is severe enough to matter,
severe enough to undermine our sense of self. It must take away something greater
than what might be gained — something that we desperately need, such as safety, love,
pleasure, freedom, or self-respect. Punishment can shame or control, deprive or
invade. It can be physical or emotional, literal or symbolic. When an example is made of
a sibling, friend, or member of our race or gender, it goes a long way toward controlling
our own behavior.

Physical and emotional abuse, whether intended as punishment or as a mismanaged
outlet for adult frustration, is interpreted by the child as punishment. Inflicting pain on a
child is not only an abuse to the body and the spirit within, but also an abuse of
authority. The adult, as a trusted authority, holds a position of unconditional power. The
child is forced to accept whatever is dictated and develop his own third chakra
accordingly.

John Bradshaw, in his TV series on the family, likened the size ratio of parent to child to
the experience of our adult selves encountering a seventeen-foot giant who is towering
over us, raging and telling us what to do. How small we are in the face of such power! If
this advantage was used against us, we may continue to feel that small the rest of our
lives, always seeing others as bigger, stronger, or smarter. One client I had, for whom a
particularly severe beating stood out in his memory, was plagued with dreams about
"the big guy and the little guy." This framework was apparent in the way he looked at his
job situations and other aspects of his life.

Starhawk, in Truth or Dare, lists four basic ways we can respond to punishment: we
can comply, rebel, withdraw, or manipulated 1 Each of these reactions can make the
third chakra dysfunctional if they characterize a pattern. To habitually comply or
withdraw is to be deficient; to automatically rebel or manipulate is to be excessive. All of
these responses are present in passive-aggressive behavior, which initially rebels by
ineffective compliance and then manipulates by withdrawal. For example, if the child is
beaten for "talking back," then the ego center of the third chakra will find power in less
direct ways, such as lateness, failing in school, or acting out against younger siblings or
friends. These attempts to balance the third chakra become, in adult life, stumbling
blocks to true effectiveness and responsibility.

Punishment forces us to deny ourselves in order to protect ourselves. This creates a
monumental block of equal and opposing forces in the third chakra, one that projects
itself on others by denying their needs as well. "A life of compliance is a life of denial,"
writes Starhawk.12 The name of this chakra, manipura, means "jeweled citadel."
Compliance is a false citadel of power. Authenticity is the jewel.

Since the third chakra is about ego and self-definition, denying our authenticity is
antithetical to building healthy ego strength. Instead the ego is built on the ability to
comply, to live up to expectations, to be good, to avoid punishment. While we may get
temporary feelings of power and energy from these experiences, we are still subject to
the highs and lows of drawing our power from a source beyond us, one that we cannot
control. If our boss is in a good mood and compliments our work, we get a lift of energy
and we feel a sense of pride in ourselves. If the boss comes in feeling angry and critical,
perhaps because of a situation at home unrelated to work, then our sense of power
slumps meekly to the floor. Our power within will be largely undeveloped, as we have
only experienced feeling weak, ineffective, and inadequate.

As personal power and ego strength are so intricately connected, the sense we develop
of our own power becomes the sense we have of ourselves. If the power dynamics

were such that we could not overcome the dominance imposed upon us, the conclusion
is that we, ourselves, are inadequate.
The Parentified Child

It is better to do your own duty, however imperfectly, than to assume the duties of
another person, however successfully. Prefer to die doing your duties: the duties of
another will bring you into great spiritual danger.

BHAGAVAD GITA

Sometimes the situation within a family requires that the child grow up too quickly and
take on responsibilities that are beyond the maturity of her age. Parental substance
abuse, poverty, illness, death, or divorce may push a child into the role of surrogate
spouse or parent. This may take many forms: giving emotional support for the remaining
parent, helping to raise younger siblings, earning money for the family, giving up
childhood freedoms or a social life with peers, or even relating with a parent sexually.
Since the expectation is that the child can fulfill these roles, and the reality is that they
are biologically and emotionally too young to fulfill them adequately, the child is left with
an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy. Such inadequacy not only attaches itself to
every task attempted in the future, but also to one's very concept of self. Only by
recognizing the inappropriateness of these expectations and working through the
attendant feelings can this sense of inadequacy be turned around. As Alice Miller has
said: "One is free from depression when self-esteem is based on the authenticity of
one's own feelings and not on the possession of certain qualities. "13
Janet, the oldest of four children, was a child of an alcoholic mother and a father who
traveled frequently on business. Her mother's pattern was to begin drinking in the
afternoon and be passed out by dinnertime. This meant that Janet, at age twelve, took
on the role of feeding her hungry brothers and sisters and putting them to bed, after
which time she might be able to begin her homework. There was seldom appropriate
food in the house to make a good dinner, nor was there any instruction on how to cook,
so the dinners were neither tasty nor nutritious. No matter how hard she tried, her
brothers and sisters whined and complained and resented her role of substitute parent.
Her siblings were naturally angry and hard to control, and Janet felt powerless and
inadequate in her assumed role. She often cried herself to sleep from the stress of the
household chaos. As a result, Janet did poorly in school and subsequently never even
applied to college, convinced that she was too dumb to handle the curriculum. She
carried this image of herself, and the inferiority that went with it, throughout life. When
she later became pregnant with her own child, she experienced panic attacks, and felt
that she could not possibly provide for a child even though she had a supportive
husband and enough income to get through the early years.

Such feelings can also arise from situations where support seems adequate. Jack, for
example, was the son of a prominent surgeon. At age three, his parents taught him to
read and do simple mathematics. They took him to classical music concerts and gave
him the best that money could buy throughout his childhood. He skipped two grades in
school and graduated at sixteen to enter an Ivy League college. Upon entering college,
however, he had a severe nervous breakdown and was unable to attend classes. His
feelings of inadequacy were so strong that even though he had done brilliandy in the
past, the only possibility he could see was failure. This failure would then betray the
confidence of his parents and reveal what Jack had always suspected — that he had a
learning disability. He felt this way because the struggle to succeed had always been so
hard for him, even though testing showed no such disability. Instead, the feeling of
inadequacy came from the fact that he was constantly pushed beyond an age-
appropriate level. Emotionally and physically, he was always younger than his
classmates, who resented his position — something that only increased his shyness and
feelings of inferiority.

Overstimulation and Sensory Deprivation

The third chakra, as the receiver, creator, and distributor of raw energy throughout the
system, has to handle whatever energy comes our way. (Feel the impact on your third
chakra as you walk into a lively party or an intense argument, for example.) When a
child is overstimulated, the third chakra and the system as a whole receive more energy
than they can handle. Sexual and physical abuse overload children's sensory systems
with the voltage of an adult system. They are not neurologically equipped to handle
such intensity, and have to find ways to either armor themselves against the intrusion or
discharge the energy through activity or acting-out behaviors. They may grow up
hypersensitive to noises, colors, emotions, or situations in their surroundings, still
unable to handle any kind of intense stimulation. Or they may become hyperactive,
seeking constant activity in order to discharge the excess energy.
At the opposite, equally damaging pole is the understimulated child. Randy was left
alone in his crib day after day throughout infancy. He was properly fed, clothed, and
even loved by his parents in the way they thought best, but was not provided with the
basics of touch, toys, or varied experience. He remembers having a stiff neck from
looking out toward the only window for hours on end and feeling incredibly lonely and
isolated. As a result Randy experiences himself as having too little energy and will, with
inner feelings of emptiness, fear of sexual inadequacy, and fatigue. Randy feels most
energized in situations with strong stimulation, such as concerts or large parties, but
tends to lose steam when he spends too much time alone. Yet, it is his habit to isolate
as the emptiness of isolation is most familiar to him.
ShaMwq

When shame underlies the control and release it seems to intensify both sides of the
tension.... Shame makes the control dynamic more rigidly demanding and unforgiving
and the release more dynamic and self-destructive. The more intensely one controls,
the more one requires the balance of release and the more abusingly or self-

7 ' MERLE A. FOSSOM AND MARILYN J. MASON

Shame results from almost any kind of child abuse, be it of authority, age-inappropriate
responsibility, neglect, abandonment, sexual, emotional, and physical abuse, or
excessive criticism. To the child who cannot explain such behavior in terms of parental
shortcomings, the only conclusion is that she, herself, is at fault. She concludes that
somehow she caused the abuse and deserved it, that she is somehow bad or unworthy
of real love and appropriate care. Although this conclusion does not occur on a
conscious level, it still becomes the primary shaper of behavior as the mind learns to
monitor every instinctual impulse and spontaneous expression. Thus the person
becomes shame-bound by a consciousness that scrutinizes and controls in an attempt
to prevent spontaneous acts from drawing more shame.

Some parental activity is directly shaming, and statements like "You ought to be
ashamed of yourself!" are far too common. Failure to praise a child's accomplishments
combined with excessive criticism over her failures will create a shame-bound
personality. How many times have I heard of parents who constantly called their
children "stupid," "ugly," "crazy," or "lazy" for behaviors that were, in actuality,
appropriate to the age in which they occurred? Children who cannot understand
something that has never been explained, who are not taught to care for themselves in
terms of personal hygiene, or who react spontaneously to crazy situations are often
shamed for responses they cannot help. As a result, their natural response becomes a
liability that must be sacrificed for the sake of safety and approval. Thus the ego
becomes divided against the instinctual core of the self.

John Bradshaw, in his excellent book Healing the Shame That Binds You, describes
how the unacknowledged shame of the parent is passed down to the children. Take, for

example, the mother whose only sense of accomplishment is through the behavior of
her children. Her own shame is transferred to the child whenever he fails to live up to
her needs for approval, and so she feels ashamed if his clothes are dirty, or if he
misbehaves at Grandma's house. Or the father who dropped out of school may try to
redeem himself through his son's college career, excessively shaming his son if he
does not do well.

Shame collapses the third chakra, and as a result the whole torso collapses at the
middle. This makes the chest cavity smaller, reduces breathing, and constricts the
throat. With this collapse, the head falls out of alignment with the rest of the body and
displaces chakras six and seven (perception and understanding) from the central
column of the body. As a result, one's thoughts and perceptions are often out of kilter
with the body's reality. The mind may try to run the body beyond its capabilities, ignoring
its messages for food or rest, denying emotional needs, and keeping the whole system
run-down.

Shame is often experienced as an inward spiral of energy in the belly — a sinking
sensation, as if the chakra is spiraling backward into the spine rather than forward into
life. Butterflies in the stomach are similar to the shame spiral — we fear we are not going
to be good enough, that we will surely fail, or that we will be exposed.
Shame creates a block between the mind and the body that splits one off from the core
self. Since the third chakra has such a close relationship to ego development, the sense
of shame and the sense of self are fused. The child does not see her actions as faulty,
but sees herself — the producer of those actions — as fatally flawed. "Only a flawed
person would make such a mistake," she tells herself. Each further mistake (and life is
always full of them) only reinforces this basic belief.

Eventually the shamed core becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. We match our behavior
to our self-concept. Afraid of making mistakes, we dare not venture outward and keep
ourselves small and limited, giving us just cause for our feelings of inferiority. Without
the belief that we can succeed, we quit without really trying, and of course, in quitting,
we prove to ourselves that we cannot succeed.
Broken Will

Through our will we create the world we want. Unfortunately, the willful child is more
work to raise than the docile, obedient one. Willful children have lots of energy and want
to do many things. They talk back when they disagree and challenge their parents.
Many parents are too overworked, disengaged, or shame-bound to be able to tolerate

that challenge.

The will is disabled primarily through the emotions.... As emotions get bound by shame,
their energy is frozen, which blocks the full interaction of the mind and the will.

JOHN BRADSHAW

The blending of wills between parent and child is a complex and delicate matter. It is
essential that parents, in their greater knowledge and maturity, provide the guiding
principles and final authority over matters concerning the safety and well-being of the
child. It is a constant struggle for the child to adapt to the parents' schedule — to be
ready for day care on time, to eat what is put in front of him, hungry or not, or to stop
playing in the middle of a game or cut of fa TV show because it is time to go home.
Parents who are too overburdened with their own schedule often have little awareness
of their child's natural rhythms.

In striving for a smoothly running ship, many parents either consciously or
unconsciously break the will of the child. Complete authority over the child is
established — he is not encouraged to make any decisions for himself, not allowed to
voice feelings or objections, and shamed for attempting to do so. A separate identity is
not allowed to emerge, individuation cannot take place, and the child grows up unable
to steer the course of his own life.

There was a time when it was believed proper and appropriate to break the will of the
child. This was the parents' job and an obedient child was their reward. But this creates
people who act without feeling, enthusiasm, or a healthy sense of their own power.
Such people are easily manipulated, controlled, and pushed into the shadow realm of
held resentments, passive-aggressive behavior, or sudden eruptions of violence as they
try to compensate for their diminished power by victimizing others. Without a will, how
can one stand up to the temptation of addictions? When we are robbed of our chance
to say no, we are robbed of the ability to control our lives and of the essential assertion
of the self.

The following list, from Alice Miller's rules of the poisonous pedagogy, all serve to break
the will of the child:

Adults are the masters (not the servants!) of the dependent child.

They determine in godlike fashion what is right and what is wrong.

The child is held responsible for the parents' anger.

The parents must always be shielded.

The child's life-affirming feelings pose a threat to the autocratic adult.

The child's will must be broken as soon as possible.

All this must happen at a very early age so the child will not notice and will

therefore not be able to expose the adult.14
Each of these abusive rules undermines the establishment of a powerful third chakra.
They impact the development of will, self-esteem, personal responsibility, and personal
freedom by effectively twisting them into unrecognizable forms through domination and
suppression, control and violence, fear and submission. When this happens at an early
age (especially during the delicate emergence of the individual self) we have a collapse
at the core, for which the other chakras must protect and compensate.

CHARACTER STRUCTURE

The Endurer

Sam reminded me of a storm cloud. Dark and brooding, his body was dense, muscular,
and heavy. His eyes revealed a plaintive sadness, as if he had silently endured great
losses in his life — a sadness that reminded me of the sky when it was about to rain. His
voice did not match his powerful body, but seemed to come out in a modified whine. He
began his story with a long list of complaints. "I feel like I don't have any energy. I'm
tired all the time. I feel stuck in my job, and nothing turns me on anymore. I just feel
heavy and depressed, but I don't know why." His eyes were downcast and his body
moved very little. When I asked him how long he had been feeling this way, he
answered, "It seems like I've always felt this way. But the older I get, the worse it feels.
Nothing I do seems to change it."

In the development of this character structure, the muscular system of the growing child
is subverted from its natural function of movement to the neurotic function of holding.

ALEXANDER LOWEN

Later on, I got Sam onto his feet and did some basic grounding work to get a charge
going through his body. It was soon obvious that he actually had quite a bit of energy.
As it built up, I could see the veil of anger starting to come over his features, but as it
grew, he announced that he did not like the exercise.

As I recognized his need for autonomy, we stopped the exercise and explored his
history. His mother had been smothering, his father distant and passive, and his older
brother picked on him. When he was just over two years old, his sister was born, and
his mother forced him into early toilet training to avoid having two children in diapers.
Since his brother was aggressive and uncontrollable, Sam was punished for defending
himself so that he would not become like his brother. This meant he had to suppress his
anger. As his brother was rebellious, Sam became his mother's favorite. She doted on
him but also controlled him. She usurped his autonomy, and told him how wonderful he

was when he pleased her, but she withdrew her love if he misbehaved. When he later
dropped out of college because of poor grades, she refused to speak to him for a
number of years. This was how she treated her favorite.

Sam learned to endure, feeling that he had no choice. He tried to please others, but
usually failed. When he failed, he turned vicious criticism on himself. His life became
grim, his energy bound, his sexuality lukewarm. He felt stuck, and indeed he was.
Sam was an example of the Masochist character structure (as termed by Lowen) or the
Endurer (see figure 3.2). The Endurer's dilemma is that he is locked in a holding
pattern that binds the energy of the will, restrains autonomy, and compresses his
spontaneity, joy, and optimism. He is caught in a vicious cycle where activity that cannot
move forward is turned against the self, creating more frustration, greater tension, and
more blockage. This results in a morose feeling of hopelessness and despair, a
disabled will, and a reduced energy level — in short, a deficient third chakra.
I refer to a "block" in the energy as a place in the psychic and somatic realm where two
or more opposing forces meet. You may wish to get angry at your boss and also want
his approval. These two needs, both valid, work at cross-purposes to each other. Since
neither can be fully denied or fully expressed, their mutual antagonism results in a
block. When either side of the block is triggered, it increases the energy of its opposite
and the ensuing struggle produces stress. Sam, for example, had many reasons to feel
angry at his mother but also wanted her love, and these needs seemed mutually
exclusive, hence the feeling of being stuck.

The Endurer structure develops when the parent is overly controlling, squashing the
child's emerging autonomy. Since authority is forced at a time when autonomy is
naturally emerging but not strong enough to stand alone, submission is the only
possible recourse. Since this authority is not in keeping with the child's will, the result is
a pattern of outer compliance and inner defiance. The child says, "All right, I'll do what
you want, but I won't really participate!" (If you imagine making this statement, you can
feel the holding inside.) The only way to feel autonomous is to go into resistance.8
Unfortunately, this resistance becomes a standard approach to life and the Endurer has
trouble either engaging or participating in anything without these ambivalent feelings
creating a block.

Yet the outer compliance makes him reliable, steady, hardworking, anxious to please,
and able to endure. Endurers hold up well in crisis, are loyal mates, and seldom stir up
trouble. They can stick to business and accomplish difficult or unpleasant tasks. Yet
while they try to please on the outside, there is simultaneously a tendency to sabotage.
A passive-aggressive stance toward life is the only possible expression the disabled will
can have for dealing with these ambivalent feelings.

Largely, the ambivalence is between aggression and tender feelings. The Endurer, like
any child or adult, wants approval and affection, but affection is won at the cost of his
own autonomy, and anger arises. Since he feels both manipulated by and angry toward
the person he wants affection from, he feels both need and anger simultaneously, and
can express neither.

Figure 3.2. Masochistic Character Structure (the Endurer)
The Overmanaged Child

CHAKIA

SECOND
CHAKIA

THUD
CHAK«A

f GU«TH
CHAKRA

Dhfcttt

Draws inward,
"holding in"

Emotional
numbness (feeling
held in. blocked)

Energy bound
at will

teen as antithetical
to love

Tends toward

density or
obesity in body

May avoid
pleasure or feel
guilty about ii

Passive-aggressive
other:

Critical, negative

Excessive
boundaries

Experiences sex
as work

Inner rage
blocked

i—

Resistant,
stubborn

Afraid to get
intimate,
to lei go

Tries to please
while inwardly
resisting

Developi loo
of grief

Feeh stuck,
u amoving

May reel inadeqiuic
emotionally and
sexually

Whines instead

Afraid to reach
out Because it
risks autonomy

Stubborn

Sees love as
Conditional

Low self-esteem t
shame -based

Remains submissive
to get love, so
simultaneously
resists closeness

Feels like a victim

Intense focus
of energy

Good discipline

f IFTH
CHAKIA

Dffkn-nt

SIXTH
CHAKKA

Spk

SEVENTH
CHAKft A

D&dm*

Excessive shyness

Locked in self-scrutiny
due to shame base

Usually not strongly
spiritual due to-
fur of losing
autonomy

Whining and
complaining

Hypervigilant

Often intelligent
and capable

Energy choked
in throat area

Fantasizes rather
than takes action

Skeptical

Difficulty putting
feelings into words

Pragmatic — likes
tacts better than
abstract ideas

In the words of Lowen: "...the masochist does not deny reality as does the
schizophrenic, nor reject its demands as does the Oral character. He accepts reality at
the same time that he fights it, he admits the rationality of its demands at the same time
that he fights them. Like no other character, he is in terrible conflict."9
In many Endurer structures, the will is not broken by violence but by seeming
sweetness. "Oh, my little boy would never act like that and disappoint his mommy, now
would he?" "Cathy is my favorite child, she is so obedient and quiet." "Oh, I'm so very
disappointed that you did that. I thought you were better than your brother." The
implication of not living up to assumed expectations is that we are somehow bad or
inadequate, all because we have displeased someone. We want to be approved of, and
submit our will accordingly while simultaneously resenting the hell out of it.
When conditional love is used as reward or punishment for behavior, the child's third
and fourth chakras are at odds with each other: He can have love by cooperating and
giving up his will or he can have autonomy by risking rejection and losing love — but in
this equation he can never have both. Love and will become an either-or phenomenon.

Since both are necessary, the plight is hopeless and the Endurer falls into despair. It is
important to remember that this equation is false. In truth, we can only have true love
and strong will when both are present and working in concert with each other. It is
extremely hard for the Endurer to realize this.

At the root of the Endurer's conflict is the demon of shame. His greatest fear is
humiliation. When punished or criticized, he often collapses into vicious self-
recrimination known as a shame attack. This diminishes his third chakra, and makes it
more difficult to protect himself. He experiences shame again when he is manipulated
because of the weak ego. The Endurer is caught in a vicious cycle of shame that
undermines action and further perpetuates the shame. It's a terrible mess.
We experience shame if we cannot adequately control what comes out of us. If toilet
training is started before the muscles are mature enough, a feeling of failure results,
which makes us think what is inside is evil and nasty, and must be held in. We are
rewarded for holding in, shamed for letting go. Where the Schizoid holds together and
the Oral holds on, the primary pattern of the Endurer is holding in. He becomes
ashamed of what is inside, and this translates to shame about everything inside — his
feelings, his thoughts, his needs, and essentially, his very self. Therefore, the greatest
fear of the Endurer is exposure, which he is certain will lead to humiliation and further
shame. Therefore, he must hold himself in.

The predicament of holding in creates several blocks in the chakra system as a whole.
There are four places where tension is most likely to be released and that Endurers
must guard and close — the legs, hands, throat, and genitals. They may be able to take
in energy from the ground and crown, but are unable to release it. The buildup of energy
inside often makes the body very dense and large, often with a thick, muscular padding
between the throat and buttocks. The posture is one of shame, where the tail is tucked
in, the head lowered, and the third chakra collapsed. The first and fifth chakras are
blocked, and this pulling inside and turning against the self creates masochism.
Reaching out is also blocked, and the Endurer is trapped inside a body packed with
energy, unable to release (see this page, Endurer Character).

Let us look at the way this padding is formed. Suppose one were sitting by the window
on a cold day, quietly reading a book. Suddenly someone throws a rock through the
window. The Endurer feels annoyed, gets up, puts on a coat and scarf, and goes back
to reading his book. Then another rock comes sailing through another window. It gets
colder. The Endurer puts on another coat and scarf over the first layer. Rather than tell
the person to stop throwing rocks, the Endurer simply puts on heavier armor. After the
third rock, there is a third coat, and after the fourth rock the Endurer may finally feel
annoyed enough to say something, but when he tries, his cries are so muffled by the
coats and scarves that no one can hear him. He is unable to stop the rocks, and unable
to remove the armor. He feels miserable, worthless, and victimized. It is typical of the
Endurer to not even perceive the option of stopping the rocks, let alone that of getting
angry at the thrower. The unspoken assumption (based on past experiences with
parental authority) is that they cannot be stopped anyway so why waste time trying?
Failure only increases shame, so it is safer not to risk it, and instead just protect oneself.
Anger, aggression, and spontaneous activity do arise in the Endurer. They are not, by
any means, devoid of feeling. But when they arise, their expression is stifled and the
energy turns inward, against the self (hence the source of the masochism). The feeling
of shame that is already present takes the form of a vicious internal critic that is always
pointing out the Endurer's faults and flaws. The master-slave relationship of the parent
to the child is thus repeated internally between the mind and the body or, in Freudian
terms, between the superego and the id, where the ego is too weak to mediate between
the two. The more the anger builds up, the more severe the internal punishment. This
creates the feelings of hopeless despair and being stuck — the Endurer's chief complaint

in life.

The Endurer's will is bound up in submission and resistance and seldom sees a
proactive path of action that will alleviate their situation. The default assumption is that
situations must be tolerated rather than changed. His basic shame convinces him that
he has no right to ask for change, and if given the opportunity, he may not even know
what he wants, having long since relinquished the right to ask. Endurers see their life as
a series of "have-tos," to which they submit with resignation and resentment.
The liberating current cannot break through the impasse at the will to gain entry into the
upper chakras. Love is seen as something that must be earned through approval and
given by will rather than by feeling. What does get past the third chakra meets another
block at the throat, and the Endurer's voice may sound like a suppressed whine. Since
outward objection is not allowed, whining and complaining are the only permissible
expressions of dissatisfaction. Blocked at the throat, much of the inner world is kept
from chakras six and seven and therefore kept from consciousness. Instead, the inner
world remains perpetually in the unconscious, and Endurers have a hard time seeing
their own process. In their plight, they are a mystery to themselves, and they simply
draw the conclusion that they are flawed and inadequate, and that this is unchangeable.
To heal, the Endurer needs to express both the angry and the tender feelings. The
tyranny of the will must be vanquished by giving it something more productive to do
than criticize. The anger that is turned against the self must be externalized, the feelings
of need acknowledged and released from their cloak of shame. Movement breaks the
holding patterns and sexuality allows nurturance to come in. Building self-esteem is the
underlying theme, so that a larger ego can then stand up to the inner critic and emerge
into autonomy once again. To the Endurer, this is a frightening process, but one which
eventually reinstates their inner authority, strengthens the will, and reclaims joy and
spontaneity.

EXCESS AND DEFICIENCY

The demand for a false self to cover and hide the authentic self necessitates a life
dominated by doing and achievement.

JOHN BRADSHAW

Third chakra excesses may appear at first glance as an abundance of power and
energy. In reality, they compensate for feelings of diminished or unrecognized power.
To overcome feelings of helplessness, abandonment, neglect, and abuse, there is an
excessive attachment — even obsession — with power, control, and bolstering one's self-
esteem. Since the core self is undernourished, one tries to live up to an image or a false
self that must be nourished by approval from others. As a result, third chakra excess
may appear as constant activity, or what John Bradshaw referred to as a human doing
instead of a human being. This bolsters the ego with accomplishments, engagements,
and busy-ness. Such a person will be in constant motion, excitation, and the stress that
goes with it, thriving on such conditions as a way of feeling alive. Such chronic pushing
can eventually lead to chronic fatigue — a flip from an excessive to a deficient state (see
figure 3.3).

A person with an excessive third chakra is ruled by a rigid will. An excessive will, is not
necessarily a strong will for its lack of flexibility may make it brittle and fragile. An
excessive will may flare in anger or retreat in fear when challenged. An excessive will
has a constant need to be in control of oneself, of others, of situations. In extremes, it is
the bully — dominating, aggressive, angry, and inflated. In less extreme forms it is the
manager who tends to overmanage situations by obsessing about every detail, trying to
control as many variables as possible. The manager always wants to know, "Who's
going to be there? What should I wear? How long will it take? What if this? What if
that?"

Excess 1: Blocked

Excessive energy builds up if
blocked from expression and
may turn against the Self.

Excess 2: Active
When the third chakra is open,
it is focused and directed. If
excessive, this expression can be
dominating or obsessive.

Deficiency

A deficient third chctkrd is
depleted. Energy flowing out-
ward is weak and aimless.

Figure 3.3. Third Chakra Excess and Deficiency
Sometimes an excessive will can be seen in the control of one's own body. Dancers,
athletes, weight trainers, runners, fastidious dieters, and even yoga practitioners
sometimes run their bodies like machines, working them hard, pushing them with their
will, or forcing them into submission by the rigorous regimen they have chosen. They
may ostensibly choose such a program for spiritual, artistic, or health reasons, but close
examination may reveal a need to bolster the ego by how well the body looks or
performs. While this is certainly not true of all such endeavors, any of us can fall into
this trap when working on self-improvement programs. The body is not a thing but a
living vehicle. Balance between listening to the body's messages and channeling those
impulses into productive activity is the integration we seek. While those with a deficient
third chakra may need to develop their will with a personal regimen, those with
excessive third chakras are more likely to carry it to damaging extremes.
The same self-domination by the will can also occur in one's life. We may not be
engaged in excessive activity, but nevertheless push ourselves by sheer will through the
challenges of daily life. In becoming an automaton we disengage from experience and
feelings. We function on automatic and rarely think about what we are doing, with very
little of our self involved. Here the will is disengaged from both the spirit and the body
and has taken over the function of the ego, leaving experience behind. The excess will
may rob vital energy from most of the other chakras, shutting down chakra two from the
lack of feeling, chakra four from authentic connection, and chakra five from speaking
out. The body may appear to be grounded in activity, but the spirit is not grounded in the
body.

On an outward level, the excessive third chakra has a tendency to abuse power as it

compensates for a weak ego and poor self-esteem. Power will seem intoxicating, and
the ego may become driving, obsessive, and inflexible. Other values, such as self-
nurturance, compassion, patience, and understanding, are trampled by the need for
power. Life energy gets trapped in the third chakra and cannot travel to other areas.
Generally, people who have a high anxiety level are overcharged. While this may not be
related to the third chakra in cause, it is related in effect. As the central processor for
energetic expression and distribution, the third chakra works overtime when the system
is overcharged. This may result in hyperactivity, muscle tension, excess stomach acid,
as well as a dominating personality or ironclad will.
Deficiency

People with deficient third chakras suffer from a combination of characteristics that may
include lack of fire and vitality, poor self-discipline, weak will, and lack of spontaneity.
They may be easily manipulated by others and often feel victimized. Depression may be
frequent, as the energy of the body is literally depressed and held back, often bound by
feelings of shame. Here the weak ego copes by avoidance rather than by
overcompensation. They may be intensely shy and appear cold or withdrawn. They are
likely to avoid confrontation and challenge, especially when there is any risk of personal
exposure. This includes performing in front of people or taking emotional risks in
relationships. They are more likely to play it safe, follow the rules, let others lead, and
be a people pleaser. They are passive, and control by their passivity. By letting others
take the lead, they avoid vulnerability and risk and hold power over others who must
take risks for them. In relationships, they let others initiate while they quietly go along,
often with secret resentment. Their passivity may make their partner frustrated and
upset while they, themselves, appear cool, calm, and collected. By looking good they
avoid blame and responsibility. People with deficient third chakras are the lost children
in the family, the quiet workers in the organization, or the devoted and selfless wife or
husband.

John may agree to give his neighbor a ride to the doctor when he would really rather
not, but he is too passive to say no. Instead, he shows up forty-five minutes late. This is
his nonconfrontational way of expressing anger and aggression with a minimum of
personal risk.

Fear, guilt, and shame (the demons of the first three chakras) are the dominating
influences in the deficient third chakra. Fear contracts the energy at the base, guilt
restricts the flow of movement, and as a result, there is very little energy radiating from
the third chakra as it is restricted before it even gets there. The energy that does arrive
is bound by shame.

The upper chakras may be excessive by contrast. The need for love is strong, as love
often pulls energy up from the base into a liberation that literally increases the energy of
the third chakra. The self-esteem that comes from being loved creates a feeling of
safety that gradually allows power to develop. If the relationship fails, however (as it
often does), then the energy falls back into a state of contraction, and the ego returns to
the belief in one's own inadequacy.

Lack of outward aggression is common in third chakra deficiency. There is simply not
enough energy available or the energy that is there is bound by fear and shame. If we
feel we are worthless, why fight for anything? We tell ourselves that we do not matter
and therefore what happens does not matter. Passivity is safer. Engagement brings fear
where isolation is often more comfortable.

This isolation and passivity toward others cuts us off from the energy of the world
around us. Already undercharged, we then become a closed system, further running
down into depletion and monotony, which, of course, feeds low self-esteem.
Without a strong third chakra, we lack the will to run our own lives. Self-discipline is
poor, follow-through is rare, and responsibility is avoided. We cannot stick to diets, build

our energy through exercise, push ourselves to complete projects. The liberating current
does not have enough force to escape the gravitational field of the lower chakras, and
we simply do not get off the ground.

Persons suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome manifest a depletion of third chakra
energy. This may be due to excessive activity that has simply run out of fuel, or chronic
holding that binds the energy into exhaustion, or various medical conditions including
Candida overgrowth, Epstein-Barr syndrome, Lyme disease, and food allergies. In all
cases, the body is calling for a rest and recharging, for contacting the deeper sources of
energy that emanate from the biological core.

Both excessive and deficient third chakras may be attracted to stimulants like caffeine,
amphetamines, or cocaine. Stimulants help the deficient system feel normal and help
the excessive system continue its constant activity. Highly anxious personalities may
also be attracted to calming drugs such as opiates, barbiturates, and alcohol.
It is possible to have a chakra that exhibits both deficient and excessive strategies. We
may have a weak will but engage in constant activity, yet undermine the system over
time. We may feel sluggish and lazy and yet be very manipulative. The important thing
to realize is that all these behaviors attempt to deal with underlying wounds of autonomy
and self-esteem.

RESTORING THE LOTUS

Healwqthe Turd Chakra

For in every act of love and will — and in the long run they are both present in each
genuine act — we mold ourselves and our world simultaneously. This is what it means to
embrace the future.

ROLLO MAY

Healing the third chakra is essential for maintaining healthy metabolism, balancing the
distribution of energy throughout the body, and determining the course of our lives with
appropriate responsibility and freedom. In order to achieve this, we need to work
simultaneously on two levels: the internal management of energy within the body, and
the external expression of that energy in the outer world. When both levels are
addressed, our wills develop to a point where we can begin to work for social and
political changes and assist in the ongoing struggle for overall human liberation.
As one might expect, the inner work comes first. We cannot be very effective in the
outer world if our personal energy is tied up in knots inside our own body. Untying the
knots involves overcoming existing inertia — the old habit patterns that drag us
downward, the binding fears from the past that rule us, the paralyzing self-scrutiny of
our shame, or the compulsive acting out of unresolved conflicts. Overcoming this inertia
is the first step in the individuation process.
HEALING DEFICIENCY

If the chakra is basically deficient, then energy must be built up slowly as if kindling a
fire. We cannot escape the gravitational field of the first and second chakras without a
burning fire to ignite and push us onward. Without the fire of confidence and
enthusiasm, we cannot meet new challenges or successfully maintain disciplines such
as a restrictive diet or a meditation practice. We set ourselves up for failure, which only
increases the feelings of shame and powerlessness.

Building the fire means increasing metabolic energy. The first step in this process is to
examine the fuel consumed to make that fire, through attention to diet. Eating foods that
are low in fat, sugar, and additives yet have high levels of complex carbohydrates and
sufficient protein and vegetables helps the fire burn cleanly. Eating at regular intervals

keeps blood sugar levels steady and energy flowing evenly. Frequent aerobic exercise
for at least thirty minutes at a time helps the body break a sweat, increases metabolic
efficiency, and develops a feeling of power through increased muscle tone. As we
become more physically fit, our energy flows more smoothly and our self-esteem also
increases.

Deficient third chakras need to engage with life in ways that provide nourishment and
support. What activities leave you feeling energized? What activities leave you feeling
drained? What is it about those activities that your system responds to? Look for
activities that energize you and find ways of increasing your time for them.
Challenges and difficulty can also increase our energy as long as they are not
completely overwhelming and impossible. Avoidant people feel depleted and unable to
meet challenges, but they seldom realize that their avoidance is precisely what keeps
them undercharged. Notice what happens in your body when you confront your boss, or
take a risk that plunges you into new territory. That shaky feeling may be the activation
of fear or shame, but it is also a state of increased energy and aliveness. When we rise
to meet challenges, we raise the psychic voltage of the system itself. Inertia keeps us in
patterns that already exist. Moving into new realms forces us to create new patterns, to
experience life in the now, and discover our own hidden reserves of power and strength.
Those with deficient third chakras need to work on strengthening their will by increasing
physical energy as well as paying conscious attention to their goals and desires. Many
of my clients do not take control of their lives because they have no master plan that
outlines their long-term goals. The deficient structure does not organize very well and
needs a plan to keep them on track. To stick with a plan or routine increases our
feelings of power and control and boosts our confidence.
HEALING EXCESS

Excessive third chakras have more energy than the system can handle, and this energy
needs to be discharged or rerouted to other chakras. Often the strategy for this type of
work involves increasing the function of other chakras, rather than engaging the third
chakra itself. If excess is to be redistributed it needs to have some place to go. We may
need to open channels for emotional expression, soften the heart, or increase the
grounding. Working directly on the third chakra in excessive cases may create a power
struggle, which only creates further excess. Instead, excessive third chakras need to
relax, sit still, and let go of control. Guided meditation that takes one through deep
relaxation is an excellent place to start. This is a time for quiet release and making
deeper contact with the body and mind. Practicing yoga promotes relaxation and
flexibility, softly dissolving blocks that bind tension. Prescribing downtime without
requirements or goals allows the third chakra to disengage from its constant thrust
forward and lets the person experience a deeper state of being. Taking time to do
nothing can be extremely difficult for excessive third chakra types to tolerate, and they
may only accept it with the idea that they are actually "doing" something to promote their

own health.

The demand for a false self to cover and hide the authentic self necessitates a life
dominated by doing and achievement.

JOHN BRADSHAW
OTHER GENERAL STRATEGIES FOR THIRD CHAKRA HEALING
Give Up Being Safe

The first thing I tell my clients or group members when they wish to develop their third
chakra is to give up the attachment to being safe. This involves giving up wanting
everything assured ahead of time and accepting that there might be criticism, challenge,
misunderstanding, rejection, or a possibility of failure. While safety may be important for
survival issues and for developing emotions, it is no challenge to our power if everything
we do is already removed from any real risk.

We need to face the fact that the world is not safe. If we limit ourselves to what is
predictably comfortable, we may as well not get out of bed in the morning. In clinging to
safety and security, we remain as children — powerless and wanting the world to be
shaped for us. The challenge of power is to mature, accept responsibility, and carve the
shape of our future through our own proactivity. Our power increases through meeting
challenges and resolving them successfully. We must be willing to take risks, venture
into the unknown, and escape the gravity of the familiar in order to expand upward and
outward in the journey across the Rainbow Bridge.
Work with Anger

Safety is often the comfortable euphemism we use to deny our feelings of fear. The
seeker of security has found a modus operandi of sorts within an attitude of negation.

JOHN PIERRAKOS

While emotions are generally related to the second chakra, anger is particularly relevant
to the third as it expresses assertive, fiery energy. Blocked anger can create both
excessive and deficient conditions, but is more likely to be excessive. Those with
deficient structures may not even be aware of their own anger, as they do not have
enough energy to express it. Allowing a deficient structure to develop a means of
expressing anger gives her permission to have this energizing and empowering
emotion.

If anger is felt but not expressed, then it is more likely to result in an excessive
condition. Anger is energy, as the body attempts to meet a challenge through increasing
its charge. If situations that make us angry occur frequently, we live in an overcharged
state. If that energy cannot be expressed, then the charge builds up in the body and
becomes locked in the muscles as tension, compulsive activity, or a need to control.
Blocked anger is often a factor in obesity, which can be seen as a metabolic defect.
Something is preventing the matter consumed as food from turning into energy. We
might say the fires are not burning properly or that the fire energy is blocked in some
way. Since food is supposed to supply us with energy, the obese person is frustrated as
the food they consume does not energize them, and so they reach for more food, which
only worsens the problem. I have found that releasing blocked anger often improves
metabolism and helps stabilize weight problems, sometimes with little or no change in
diet. When dieting is needed, reclaiming our anger often increases available energy for
the will, making it easier for us to maintain the diet.

Getting anger out involves looking at what created it, examining situations we were
forced to endure, and reclaiming the right to object to those abuses of power that hurt
or oppressed us. Addressing our anger to these past issues helps free available energy
for present challenges. It also keeps us from having an inappropriate level of charge for

The dynamic core of your human life is grounded in your feelings, your needs, and your

Y ' Y JOHN BRADSHAW

In a therapeutic situation, releasing anger about our father keeps us from continually
badgering our husbands or boyfriends. Standing up to our mother keeps us from
resenting our wives, girlfriends, or daughters. Being able to express our anger at its
source keeps it from becoming excessive or harmful, and instead increases our feeling
of empowerment. In my experience as a therapist I have found that clients often fear
that if they get angry in therapy, they will turn into horrible, angry people in their daily
lives. In actuality, getting their anger out makes them less angry yet more effective in
their lives.

Attacking the Shame Demon

In both excessive and deficient chakras, the demon of shame is usually found lurking in
the shadows of the third chakra, ready to attack its poor victim the moment any mistake

(or even success) arises. Thus the foundation for balanced power — healthy
self-esteem — is continually undermined. For some, this results in withdrawal and
collapse, for others, a fury of compensating activity.

In either case, the roots of shame need to be exposed and pulled out of our ground of
being. We may feel shame about our bodies, our emotions and sexuality, our
neediness, for not being "good enough," or any number of reasons. It is important to
recognize the critical voice in your head, and to ask whose voice it resembles. What
forces were acting on that person that drove such criticism in your direction? How did
they feel about themselves?

Often when the voice rears its ugly head, the conversation is one-sided. "You're so
stupid. You never do anything right. You'll never make anything of yourself." Where is
the other side of this conversation? Where is the rebellion that says, "Whaddya mean,
I'm stupid! You never showed me how to do anything! You never took time to teach me.
You expected me to behave in ways that were beyond my maturity, to know things I
couldn't possibly have known. And without the slightest support or encouragement!" Or
the rebellious voice might say, "Look, this is the first time I've tried to do this task. I'm
not gonna be an expert my first time, but at least give me credit for trying. I'm doing my
best. Back off!"

Shame inevitably results from abuse. Seeing the child you were in the context of that
abuse and showing compassion for that child helps dissipate the shame. Inner child
dialogs involve having the adult self tell the child self that they are forgiven, that it was
not their fault, that they did not do anything wrong, or that they did not deserve the
abuse. This replaces the overly critical, shaming programs that run us ragged and steal
the joy from our lives.

CONCLUSION

Third chakra work, whether dealing with excess or deficiency, rests on building ego

strength. This involves developing contact with the authentic self through the body and
through its feelings and aspirations, raising self-esteem through attacking the shame
demon, and creating a sense of power through meeting challenges and engaging in
stimulating activities. Releasing inhibitions and fears loosens up the spontaneous,
playful energy that makes life easy and enjoyable. These tactics nourish the liberating
current coming up from the base chakra.

To honor the consciousness coming down from the top, it is helpful to make a list of
goals and intentions and then plan the steps needed to bring those goals into
manifestation. The will develops when we apply our energy to these goals or to other
routines that help develop our skills and our physical energy. The results of our efforts
positively reinforce the process and also ground our third chakra power in tangible
reality.

Healing the third chakra brings a healthy sense of power as well as its limits. It
promotes a proactive and causative approach to life, one that is confident, warm,
responsible, and persevering. The person is now able to take on challenges, follow
through on tasks, confront opposition effectively rather than with reactive retaliation, and
take responsibility for their actions. The person with a healthy third chakra is a person
with good vitality and a playful ability to laugh at themselves.

CHAKRA FOUR

Finding the Balance in Love

•iumi:

CHAKRA AT A GLANCE

ELEMENT

Air

NAME

Anahata (unstruck)

PURPOSES

Love

Balance

ISSUES

Love

Balance

Self-love

Relationship

Intimacy

Anima/animus

Devotion

Reaching out and taking in

COLOR

Green

LOCATION

Chest, heart, cardiac plexus

IDENTITY

Social

ORIENTATION

Self-acceptance
Acceptance of others
DEMON
Grief

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE

4 to 7 years

DEVELOPMENTAL TASKS

Forming peer and family relationships

Developing persona

BASIC RIGHTS

To love and be loved

BALANCED CHARACTERISTICS

Compassionate

Loving

Empathetic

Self-loving

Altruistic

Peaceful, balanced
Good immune system
TRAUMAS AND ABUSES

Rejection, abandonment, loss
Shaming, constant criticism

Abuses to any other chakras, especially lower chakras

Unacknowledged grief, including parents' grief

Divorce, death of loved one

Loveless, cold environment

Conditional love

Sexual or physical abuse

Betrayal

DEFICIENCY

Antisocial, withdrawn, cold

Critical, judgmental, intolerant of self or others

Loneliness, isolation

Depression

Fear of intimacy, fear of relationships

Lack of empathy

Narcissism

EXCESS

Codependency

Poor boundaries

Demanding

Clinging

Jealousy

Overly sacrificing

PHYSICAL MALFUNCTIONS

Disorders of the heart, lungs, thymus, breasts, arms

Shortness of breath

Sunken chest

Circulation problems

Asthma

Immune system deficiency

Tension between shoulder blades, pain in chest

HEALING PRACTICES

Breathing exercises, pranayama
Work with arms, reaching out, taking in
Journaling, self-discovery
Psychotherapy

Examine assumptions about relationships

Emotional release of grief

Forgiveness when appropriate

Inner child work

Codependency work

Self-acceptance

Anima-animus integration
AFFIRMATIONS
I am worthy of love.
I am loving to myself and others.
There is an infinite supply of love.
I live in balance with others.

SHADES OF GREEN

We may be a culture obsessed by power, but we are driven by the need for love. The
basic right of the heart chakra — to love and be loved— is simple, profound, direct. Sadly,
this chakra is easily damaged, diminished, or wounded. These wounds have profound
importance as they wound both spirit and soul, affect both mind and body, and impact
the very core of the self.

Why is love so elusive when it is so simple? Literature abounds with sagas of love and
its loss, sagas we know only too well from personal experience. Nothing is quite so
uplifting as the flowering of love, nothing so devastating as its loss. A deeply archetypal
experience, love is the force that runs our lives. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Driven by the forces of love, the fragments of the world seek each other so that the
world may come into being.

PIERRE TEILHARD DE CHARDIN
We cannot live without it, yet the world is crying for lack of it.

All forms of child abuse are, in fact, travesties of love. They are travesties because they
are not a complete absence of love, but an absence of healthy love. How many children
have been spanked and abused, sexually molested, punished severely, smothered, or
overmanaged while being told, "This is because I love you so much." Travesties of love
occur when the most needed element of life is twisted and torn, withheld and used as a
means of control. Without knowing what healthy love looks like, we have a hard time
creating it in our lives. We hang on to mere shreds of love, sacrifice ourselves on its
altar, run in fear when we find it.

Instead, we are turning toward the opposite of love: warfare and violence. Television
violence models behavior for our children and gangs provide many of our youth with
their only sense of belonging. Adolescents in my practice tell me that "cruel is cool," and
to be a man you have to be mean. On a single day in America, 270,000 children carry
guns to school and guns are now surpassing automobiles as the number one killer. 1 Is
this not a travesty of love?

Political agendas cut funds for the downtrodden and needy, the immigrants and
children, while the defense budget soars. It is alarming enough that our political leaders
embody this value system — more alarming still to contemplate the number of people
who support them. What kind of cultural mythos is driving such values ?
Myths are the cultural stories of our origins and our purpose. Unconsciously, these
stories influence and may even rule our lives. They define what is possible, shape who
we are, and lead us to what can be. Myths are a statement of the primal relationships
that exist between archetypal elements in the universe and their counterparts in our own
psyches.

In the prevailing mythos, we are children of divorce. The Great Mother, a fundamental
archetype of the psyche, was worshipped as a living deity for at least 25,000 years
during the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods of human history.2 She is archetypal
ancestress to us all, her memory buried deeply in the collective unconscious. She
mirrors our early childhood experience of our own mothers and embodies the archetypal
imprint of the mothering source — nurturance, nourishment, containment, and
connection.

In the collective mind of Western civilization, she has long been forgotten. Removed
from our predominant mythology, she is conspicuous in her absence. She is only
beginning to resurface through the growing Goddess movement, recent archeological
research, and the popularity of Jungian archetypal psychology. She is the Mother we
have lost and are only just beginning to find again. She is the archetypal feminine at the
primal origin of our cultural history.

In her absence, the Great Father has become the sole protagonist in our dominant
mythology. He is strong and powerful, but distant and ethereal. He is without a wife or
daughter and is estranged from all that the feminine archetype represents. His
immediate son has been crucified, ostensibly for the sins of the children. In the divorce
settlement, we are the motherless children who were taken to live with the Father. In our
new household, Mother was not be discussed and became forgotten.
We have inherited the myth of a broken home. We are the motherless children in our
distant father's house, trying to find wholeness in a world that is longing for the magic

and mystery of love. This is our story. These are our parents. We are the children of an
unacknowledged marriage.

No wonder we have such a yearning for romantic love. No wonder the myth of man-
meets-woman-and-lives-happily-ever-after pervades our collective fantasies, rendering
other forms of love unrecognizable. If we were children of an intact and loving mythical
home, a partnership mythology, we might seek union from an experience of
cooperation, rather than through a compulsive need to complete our diminished selves
through another.

Our predominant myth is one of separation. We see ourselves as separate from Nature,
separate from each other, and separate from the divine. Separations are created by
race, class, gender, and age. Individuals are endowed with the moral right, even
encouragement, to do whatever is necessary to further their own individual existence.
The environment and its coinhabitants are sacrificed for individual needs. Wealth and
class create more separation, more privacy, and more individualism.
We have created vast separation between men and women, and further separation
between women and women, and between men and men. Love, as the all-pervasive
glue of the universe, is culturally restricted to the bonds of limited heterosexual dyads
and their often lonely offspring. The model is obviously flawed, for our children are
abused and our marriages repeat the pattern of our mythical parents — with epidemic
divorce.

Collectively, it seems we are falling out of love with the world. We all know what deep
pain we feel when we fall out of love. It pierces the very core of our being, carves a
deep hole in the soul, and wounds and cripples the living spirit.

In our disconnection, we can barely relate to all the tragedies occurring in the world. Is it
because the very art of relating is becoming a lost art? Is this because the time it takes
to relate deeply, feel fully, and communicate and understand is no longer valued as time
well spent? We are becoming alienated, hostile, defensive, self-centered, and
compulsively consuming. The result is isolation, constriction, and limitation. The ground
that holds us becomes shaky, and the energy that evolves us is restricted to traditional
patterns that support the myth of separation. In our isolation, we are lost from our
spiritual core, lost from the heart.

To cross the Rainbow Bridge connecting Heaven and Earth is to consciously reconnect
severed parts of the world. It is to anchor the myth of individualism in the necessary
grounding of self, while simultaneously expanding that self into a conscious unity with
the world around us — socially, ecologically, and mythically. To access the divine and
become as gods, we need to recognize our own divine nature as part of the greater
mystery of unfolding. To heal the heart is to reunite mind and body, the mystical and
mundane, self and other into an integrated whole.

This is our task in the heart chakra as it is the task for every one of us that wants to heal
this world and assure its future. Without love, there is no binding force to hold our world
together. Without love, there is no integration but instead c//s-integration. Without love,
our Rainbow Bridge collapses in the middle and we fall into the chasm of separation
below.

UNFOLDING

THE PETALS

Basic Issues of the Fourth Chakra
Love
Balance
Self- Reflection

Self-Acceptance
Relationship
Intimacy
Anima/Animus
Eros/Thanatos

Grief
Compassion
Devotion

Tic Mystery of Love

For one human being to love another human being; that is perhaps the most
task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the
for which all other work is merely preparation.

RAINER MARIA RILKE

Riding on the golden flames of our power center, we now arrive at the very heart of the
chakra system. Here, in a band of green, lies the center of the Rainbow Bridge, the
midpoint of our journey. Like the green, growing plants, which push toward the heavens
from their roots in the earth, we, too, reach outward in two directions — anchoring the
manifesting current deep in our bodies and expanding the liberating current as we reach
beyond ourselves. In the heart chakra, these currents come to perfect balance in the
center of our being. From that sacred center — the heart of the system — we enter the
mystery of love.

The basic issues that we encounter in the heart chakra deal with balance, love, and
relationship. Through balance we find a center from which we can love, through love we
form relationships, and through relationships we have the opportunity to transform the
self-centered ego of the lower chakras into awareness of the larger realm in which we
are embedded.

It is the enchantment of love that opens the road to wider consciousness. When we fall
in love, we are suddenly stripped of our defenses, lifted out of our self-centered habits,
and propelled into an enlarged view of the world. Love melts our rigid attitudes and
alters our psychic structure. When we fall in love, we see things anew — colors are
enhanced, places take on new meaning, interests of the beloved become interests of

our own.

In real love, you want the other person's good. In romantic love, you want the ot
person.

At the same time that love expands our horizons, it also brings us into a deeper
connection with ourselves. Falling in love takes us down into our bodies; desire puts us
in touch with the physical self through our wants and needs. With another, we celebrate
the temple of the body and honor our physicality. As we reach down inside to share our
gifts with our beloved, we are forced to confront and develop our deepest nature.
The intimacy of love both reveals and integrates the shadow. Loving acceptance of
another allows the rejected parts of our psyche to emerge safely. Not only do
relationships provide a context in which the shadow is bound to emerge, intimacy invites
us to share those deepest, hidden parts of ourselves. In the accepting arms of our
beloved, these parts can come to consciousness. This acceptance sets the ground for
the self-expression of chakra five, as only through self-acceptance can we come fully

into our truth and have the courage to express it. Intimacy is the foundation for that
expression.

Being loved by another increases our experience of Self, as we are reflected in the
eyes, words, and behavior of our lover. Suddenly we catch a glimpse of our own
divinity, our specialness, and begin in a new way to truly care for ourselves and feel a
sense of pride and purpose. We take better care of our bodies, keep our houses
cleaner, and dare to reach further than we might otherwise. Love brings a spiritual
awakening, and the loss of it produces profound despair. Sometimes that loss severs us
from our sense of divinity — a state that can hardly be tolerated after the expansion and
heightened awareness that love has brought.

When love does wane, we are thrown back to our past. The loss brings us to an infantile
state of vulnerability, where our needs and issues, patterns and processes are brought
to light once again. We are forced to confront and heal our pain in order to go on, to
delve into our childhood and psychic structure to unravel the mystery that is Self. As
Jung has said, "Love is the dynamism that most infallibly brings the unconscious to
light."3 Both the presence and the loss of love force us to examine ourselves in a new
light.
Balance

Ancient tantric diagrams depict the heart chakra as a lotus of twelve petals containing a
six-pointed star made of two interlacing triangles (see figure 4.1). This represents the
downward movement of spirit into matter and the upward liberation of matter into spirit,
meeting in perfect balance in the heart. More than just a meeting, this is an
interpenetration whose final goal is integration of spirit and mind with body and soul.
Balance is the underlying foundation of longevity in all things.

Since the heart chakra is the middle point in a system of seven centers, balance is an
essential principle at this level of integration. This implies both internal balance between
various aspects of ourselves (mind and body, persona and shadow, male and female),
as well as balance between ourselves and the world around us (work and play, giving
and receiving, socializing and being alone). Finding this equilibrium supports the basic
issues of love and relationship, for without balance within ourselves it is difficult, if not
impossible, to achieve healthy and long-lasting love relationships.
We will look at the concept of balance in relationships by examining dynamics in two
essential kinds of relationships: the ones we have with ourselves and those we create
with others.

Figure 4.1. Chakra Four — Interpenetrating Triangle

Intimacy

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.

OSCAR WILDE

Intimacy, as Thomas Moore so aptly points out, is about bringing forth deeply interior
aspects of the self.4 In order to have intimacy we first need to have a sense of self. We
need to be intimate with our own interior, to know our needs, wishes, fears, boundaries,
and hopes. Through knowing the self within, we can honor the self that lives within
another. We need to be able to love our own self enough to offer it openly to someone

else. Without self-love, this cannot happen.

The most common block in the heart chakra is the absence of self-love. How can we
have intimacy with others if we are distanced from our own self? How can we reach out
to others when we are drowning in shame and criticism? How can we maintain balance
between ourselves and others if we have no balance within? How can we treat another
with respect if we treat our own selves abusively?

Ideally, the demon of shame has been transformed in the third chakra, leaving us ready
to enter the heart with an honest regard for the sacredness of our being. To love
ourselves is to act respectfully and responsibly toward ourselves, to enjoy our own
company when in solitude, to honor our limits and speak our truths. In general, self-love
is an act of treating ourselves the way we would treat anyone else that we
love — respectfully, honestly, compassionately, with feeling and understanding, pride
and patience.

Our relationships with others reflect our relationship with ourselves. We will find others
who treat us the way we expect to be treated, others who respond to the relationship
program we carry inside our heart chakra. Self-love is the foundation for loving others.
Self-Reflective Consciousness

I am continually amazed by the number of my clients who have not yet discovered the
person that lives inside. They come to see me because they hurt, because their lives
are not going well, or because they do not like themselves. That would seem to indicate
an awareness of Self, would it not? But when I have a client stand on her feet, do some
simple grounding, and look at me and say "I," there is too often a hollow ring to the
word. Sometimes it's almost a question, sometimes it's mechanical, sometimes it's
barely a whisper. Sometimes she cannot meet my eyes and say "I" at the same time.
When I ask such clients to expand the statement to "I am in here" (referring to the
body), it often becomes apparent that the statement is not true. Either the "I" has not
truly been established, or it does not live fully in the body.

Being a friend to yourself is no mere metaphor or purely sentimental idea. It is the basis
of all relationship, because it is a fundamental recognition of soul.

THOMAS MOORE

Yet, such a person may tell me long details about how she feels, what she is doing with
her life, or what problems plague her. The ego self is definitely operating. What is
missing?

The beholding of Self is missing. Beholding establishes a sacred relationship. When a
teenage daughter comes downstairs for her first prom date, dressed as a woman for the
first time, we simply behold her. It is an embrace, but it is not physical. To behold is not
to fix, change, judge, or even want. It is simply to witness — to embrace with our
awareness. In beholding the self, we witness a miraculous manifestation of divine
energy living right inside us, with all its hopes and fears, joys and tears. This witnessing
is "the heart of the heart." It brings us to the sacred. It is the essential realization that
must be present for any real healing to occur.

It has been said that an unexamined life is not worth living. To enter the heart is to enter
into self-reflective consciousness, a place of self-examination. In that reflection, we not
only define ourselves (as in the third chakra) but come into relationship with ourselves.
Self-reflective consciousness is the process of beholding. In therapy, we stop and look
at ourselves — at our motives, actions, goals, hopes, and fears. While there are many
who are cynical about this process, some kind of systematic self-examination is
essential if we are to evolve and if we are going to rise from the power-hungry
obsession of the damaged third chakra into a state of integration and peace
characteristic of the fourth. Self-reflective consciousness allows us to integrate our
psychic pieces, bring them into relationship, and see how they relate to each other and
become whole.

It requires conscious attention to change patterns, to create something new, in short, to
evolve. Without examining what has been, we are destined to repeat it. Without
cultivating consciousness, our ascending current has to turn around and go back down
to the base before it has reached its full expansion. In so doing, we are caught in
repetitive loops, neurotic patterns that we repeat again and again.
Self-examination gives birth to a new integrated Self. This Self is no longer bound by
the past, but energized by the will beneath it and headed toward the future. Self-
examination is essential for establishing the balance that is the central principle of the
heart chakra.

Through self-examination we give birth to the conscious being.
Mmdand Body

is a bodied truth, a somatic reality.

Love is

One of the prime areas of balance in the heart chakra is between mind and body. This
occurs through learning to decipher the body's messages. This involves distinct inner
listening on the part of the mind to the body's subtle communications and often leads to
recovering memories, working through traumas, releasing stored tensions, and
completing unresolved emotional transactions. Through this process various parts of
our experience are reconnected. Feelings are reconnected with mental images.
Impulses are integrated with belief systems. Sensation is connected with meaning. This
is the work of self-reflection — allowing the mind to behold our experience in the body.
If work on our lower chakras has brought us fully into our body, we are now ready to
integrate that awareness into higher levels of complexity and understanding.
Animaand Animus

In our second chakra recovery work we encountered (and hopefully integrated) our
shadow, which contains the unconscious, rejected aspects of our personality. With an
integrated shadow, we freed up energy previously used to hold the shadow back, and
this newfound energy helped move us to chakra three, where we began the process of
individuation. In the heart chakra, we continue our individuation by developing another
essential balance — that of the inner female and male, or in Jungian terms, anima and
animus.

The mystery of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances,
is any reaction, both are transformed.

C.G.JUNG

The anima is the archetypal energy of the inner feminine, and the animus, the inner
masculine. The anima is believed to figure more prominently in men, while the animus is
the counterpart in women. Still, both genders carry each archetype.
These archetypes also exist externally as symbols in the collective consciousness,
where they often become stereotypes. A stereotype is a contemporary version of an
archetype, such as the docile female or the strong, silent man. Stereotypes are
culturally determined versions of the original archetype — often truncated images that
emphasize only a part of the archetype behind them.

Our first imprinting of these archetypes came from our mother and father, yet their
behavior was influenced by the stereotypes of their time. Other stereotypes are fed to
us through movies and romance novels, advertising and television, then reinforced by
social pressure from peers.

It is important to realize that the images of masculine and feminine that we ascribe to
anima and animus are culturally dictated, rather than innate. If our images of masculine
and feminine become strongly polarized — meaning that masculine is defined by
absence of the feminine and vice versa — then it is likely that either our anima or animus
will be repressed. We have no permission for the opposite within ourselves to emerge.
Charles, for example, has accepted the prevailing cultural attitudes about what a man

should be. He thinks a man should be strong, rational, tough, independent, successful,
cool, and unemotional. To Charles, any display of vulnerability, emotion, uncertainty, or
softness threatens his self-image. Since his image is so polarized, his inner feminine
cannot come out at all. His anima may appear as fearful images in dreams, as
depression or moodiness. It remains repressed, to be unconsciously projected onto his
girlfriend. She is supposed to carry the anima for him by doing the feeling and
supporting work, and maintaining the emotional quality of the relationship.
Like the shadow, the unconscious anima or animus gets projected onto others, often in
idealized states, wreaking havoc on our intimate relationships. If a man has rejected his
own feminine nature, he may abhor the feminine in other men while expecting his
female partner to completely carry his concept of the feminine, criticizing any
independent, assertive behavior she might display. Similarly, a woman who has not
developed her masculine side expects her man to be flawlessly powerful, accomplished,
and heroic, while she is simultaneously oppressed by these qualities. Women who claim
they want a nice guy and then reject him when he shows feelings or softness are
projecting their animus. If they can allow their own masculine side to increase, they can
allow their men to become more gentle. If we find in our relationships that what initially
attracts us later repels us, we might do well to look for projected anima or animus.
In both heterosexual and gay relationships, the archetypes can be reversed. A woman,
gay or straight, may well live the masculine life and repress her own feminine. A man
may carry the feminine in his relationship with either a woman or a man. The anima and
animus are more related to the concept of opposites in the developed self than actual
gender. The point is to recognize and bring forth the side that is undeveloped. The hard-
edged career woman may need to develop her softer side, while the introverted,
supportive male may need to develop his initiating, masculine side.
The resolution of the anima and animus represents the internal sacred marriage, or
hieros gamos, the balancing of masculine and feminine energies within. This alchemical
marriage, as Jung described it, is another step in the individuation process that leads
toward wholeness. Only when this process occurs within can we hope to be free from
dependence and projection and to enter cleanly and freely into relationship with
another.

The hieros gamos stage in the individuation process usually occurs during midlife. In
the earlier development of our personality, we often favor one side over the other. The
scientist may have developed a noteworthy career that sacrificed home life. He may
adhere to a logic and exactitude that dominates feeling and imagination, or have an
extroverted personality that is constantly engaged with others through his work. At
midlife, he may find himself in a crisis that calls forth his repressed feminine side. He
may lose his wife, who has carried the feminine archetype for him, and be faced with his
inability to supply himself with the simple arts of cooking or creating a pleasurable home
environment. He may find himself unable to interpret his feelings, dried up in his
creativity, exhausted from too much yang and not enough yin, or unable to spend time
alone.

The woman who has given body and soul to her marriage and family may find at midlife
that she has never lived for herself. She may have always followed in another's
footsteps and kept her feelings within, harmoniously blending with the needs of others
around her without regard for her own destiny. She has carried the archetypal feminine
selflessly, but she may feel helpless and lost when it comes to striking out on her own
when the children leave home and no longer define her as mother. Her husband, who
has worked hard in the world to provide for her needs, may be shocked when she wants
to leave him, but her need to develop her own animus may be impossible within the
rigid context of her marriage. She now must learn to carry both archetypes within
herself.

Though we may wish it were possible, no one else can live our unlived lives for us. Our
partners never do it right and we soon find ourselves criticizing them and complaining.
"If only you'd do this; if only you didn't do that." If the masculine and feminine
archetypes are repressed within us, their qualities will seem very mysterious or even
undesirable. We are challenged to reclaim them rather than look once again for
someone to live them for us while we remain incomplete. When the anima and animus
have been equally developed, our relationships have stability, mutual respect, and
freedom.

Relationships with Others

Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill
them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves.... And if
that is what it can achieve daily on a small scale, why should it not repeat this one day
on worldwide dimensions?

PIERRE TEILHARD DE CHARDIN

Nowhere is the concept of balance more important than in the success of our personal
relationships. If there is a recurrent cry from couples struggling through the labyrinth of
conflicted relationship, it is that they lack balance with their significant other. One
partner is too distant while another feels suffocated. One partner does too much
housework while the other is resentful about unequal financial earnings. One partner
wants sex more than the other, initiates all the communication, or does all the emotional
work. Take a moment to consider what is out of balance in your own relationship.
Nature seeks balance. Lack of balance is experienced as pressure, frustration, and
stress, leading to resentment and an erosion of openness and goodwill. If the
relationship cannot eventually find an equitable balance, it is doomed to failure either
through termination or resigned misery.

The following are some of the areas in which the heart seeks balance. It must be added,
however, that balance is not static. It is a constantly fluctuating homeostasis, a dynamic
flexibility of give-and-take that balances over time in many different ways.
Reaching Out and Taking In

As the third chakra involves mastering the energetic principles of holding on and letting
go, the fourth chakra works with reaching out and taking in. Fear and grief block either
or both of these responses, and can eventually block the heart chakra itself. If the heart
chakra is blocked, then the arms will be blocked as well. They may habitually fold over
the chest, be bound at the sides, or move awkwardly and self-consciously. If the chest
is full or inflated, there may be a refusal to reach out, a fear of surrender, perhaps even
a bit of narcissism, or the holding up of the Challenger-Defender structure (see this
page, Challenger-Defender Character). If the arms are weak and move aimlessly and
the chest is collapsed (as in the Oral structure), then it indicates an inability to take in
and nourish oneself. Reaching may have become blocked because it proved fruitless in
the past.

The ideal situation for really understanding another is not so much how a person reacts
to extreme stress, but rather how he or she suffers the vulnerability of falling in love.

ALDO CARATENUTO

It is easier for the child to stop reaching altogether than to reach and find emptiness. In
this scenario, however, the energetic structure of the chakra gets built around that
emptiness. They reach out to give, but cannot receive. The chakra is deficient.
More often, one movement will be more prevalent than the other. I often ask couples to
close their eyes and express through body language the predominant energetic process
of their relationship. After they have taken their positions, I ask them to open their eyes
and see what each is doing. Often one will be leaning forward, arms outstretched, while
the other is leaning slightly backward, with arms folded or palms facing their partner as
if to hold them back. With wordless wisdom, this indicates the dynamics of the

relationship.

When David and Julie did this exercise, it was clear that Julie did the reaching and
David pulled back. His arms folded neatly over his chest; he stood firmly and proudly in
his ground, while Julie beckoned openly to him. David's own mother had been
deceptively sweet, smothering him with a love that masked her own needs. As a result,
he had become mistrustful and defensive in his heart chakra. He was unable to take in
the love Julie was offering, mistrusting her intentions. I asked him to open his arms and
Julie to drop hers by her side, so they could experience the possibility of a different
dynamic with different feelings. David felt relieved of the burden of having to defend.
Julie could feel that it was possible to receive without demanding. This is the age-old
dance of the pursuer and the distancer. When the pursuer stops chasing, the distancer
can reach out.

For Kathy it was a matter of changing old patterns. Kathy had been nursing a broken
heart from a former relationship with months of deep grieving. As springtime
approached, she began a new relationship with another woman in which she was
finding a profound sweetness. Yet along with the excitement of falling in love again, she
was also gripped with fear. "My last two relationships ended abominably. How do I know
this won't happen again? I'm terrified!"

I asked her to focus on the sweetness she had been describing in her new relationship
and feel what happened in her body as she did so. "I feel like swooning. I get dizzy and
light. It's the falling of falling in love." I asked her to stand and let her body express this
feeling of swooning and show what it looked like, while another group member stood in
for her lover. Suddenly, she was no longer in her own ground but falling toward the
other woman, out of balance and out of control. She had left her own center. No wonder
she was terrified!

Her concept of love was based on moving toward the other person, with a focus on the
surrendering and reaching out. While this is an essential element in any relationship, it
was clear that she was missing the concept of her lover moving toward her. She tried to
assure herself that the other person was trustworthy (something we can never fully
depend upon) so she could let go and surrender. But that very act of surrender was an
abandonment of her own self and a recipe for eventual disaster. I had her practice
pulling her lover in toward herself while holding her own ground. Only then could we
move toward a mutual reaching, in which both people were centered and open to each
other.

Attachment and Freedom

Thomas Moore, in his book Soul Mates, talks about the struggle between the soul's
need for attachment and the spirit's need for freedom. This struggle is a major theme in
most relationships, enacted through the simultaneous longing and fear of commitment.
In the heart chakra, we seek to balance the lower chakras' pull for security with the
upper chakras' pull toward novelty. When our partner constricts us, we get restless and
want to push away. The spirit hates constriction and limitation, hates to be squashed.
Attachment and freedom is the way we experience the universal forces in their holding
on and letting go.

The soul, however, finds security in the body, in familiarity and permanence. The soul
likes a container, which allows the energy to build, whereas the spirit might resent it.
When our partner is pulling away, the soul becomes insecure and wants to hold on.
When our partner clings, the spirit feels restless and confined. A healthy relationship
needs to honor both the upward and downward movements of energy and create a
balance between spirit and soul, expansion and constriction, freedom and commitment.
Moore states it plainly: "Many people seem to live the pain of togetherness and
fantasize the joys of separateness; or, vice versa, they live a life of solitude and fill their
heads with alluring images of intimacy. Bouncing back and forth between these two

valid claims on the heart can be a frustrating, endless struggle that never bears fruit and
never settles down. "5

To decide upon one or the other is to further the divorce between the transcendence of
the Father and the immanence of the Mother. As children of divorce, we search for
refuge in one or the other, ignorant of the dynamic balance that serves both liberation
and manifestation.

The more we allow one kind of energy, the more the other can come through. Once a
commitment is made, it is easier to allow a partner their solitude or freedom. Once we
know our freedom is respected, we can more easily make a commitment. Conversely,
the more a partner insists on one aspect, the more his lover will yearn for its opposite.
Dynamic balance is a dance between attachment and freedom.
Eros and Thanatos

One of the hardest dynamics to accept in the realm of love and relationships is the
dance between Eros, the force of life that allures and unites, and Thanatos, the force of
death that divides and destroys. Eros is the son of Aphrodite, shining goddess of love
and beauty, while Thanatos, born of the goddess Night, thrives on the darkness of our
lack of consciousness.

When we enter into a relationship, we are joyfully swept up in the wings of Eros. We are
called forth, beckoned into union, into merging and dissolving. Reaching beyond
ourselves, beyond our own small ego, we touch something greater, wider, deeper. We
are thrilled and expanded. This is what we long for, what we aspire to, what makes

living worthwhile.

To love means to open ourselves to the negative as well as the positive — to grief,
sorrow, and disappointment as well as to joy, fulfillment and an intensity of
consciousness we did not know was possible before.

ROLLO MAY

It is that which hides in the darkness of the unconscious that brings death to love. Our
unconscious patterns sabotage relationships, pick fights, distance ourselves from our
lover, and thrust our behavior in directions the conscious mind deplores. Our partner's
lack of consciousness annoys us, and makes us want to pull away. Our own failed
awareness misses those cues to our partner's needs, and we wake up one morning to
the sight of our beloved standing with bags packed, saying, "It's over." It is then that we
stare squarely in the face of Thanatos. Like Eros, Thanatos is a force we cannot control,
one that leaves us feeling helpless.

It is not possible to have Eros without Thanatos. This does not mean that all
relationships must end in tragedy, but that coming together and pulling apart are two
inseparable steps in a single dance. For those who want only the coming together,
Thanatos becomes extreme in his insistence. For those who honor the separation, the
distancing, the misunderstandings, and estrangements as part of the flow and growth of
relationships, the dance of Eros can be eternally renewed.

Those who are most idealistic about love sometimes find the greatest pain. Wide-eyed
they fall, giving their utmost to the beloved. Great is their dismay, when, giving all they
could and valuing this love above all things, they see their lover casually mistreat what
they had regarded as sacred. Denial of Thanatos invites his more unpleasant form to
appear.

We can avoid the painful side of Thanatos // we remember to honor his presence. We
must be aware of what lurks in the darkness of our unacknowledged shadow. We need
to claim, not deny, our need for a certain amount of separateness, our fear of
engulfment, and understand that the same fear in our partner is not a statement about
us, but Thanatos's need to balance the relationship so Eros can continue the dance of
love and attraction.
Grief: Demon of the Heart

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
When Thanatos strikes, as it inevitably does, we experience grief. As the resident
demon, grief sits on the heart chakra like a stone. When our heart is heavy with grief,
it's hard to open, even hard to breathe. When grief is denied, we become numb to our
feelings and our aliveness. We become hard and cold, rigid and distant. We may feel
dead inside. When grief is acknowledged and expressed, however, we find a vital key to
opening the heart. Tears are shed, truth expressed, and the heart lightens. The breath
deepens. There is a sense of spaciousness that emerges, allowing more room inside for
our spirit. Hope is reborn. Coming to terms with our own grief leads us toward
compassion for others.

When we fall in love, we strip ourselves of defenses. We open to another and to the

world. We expand and grow. When we are hurt in matters of love, we are hurt in our

most vulnerable, trusting aspects. The purest form of self is wounded. It no longer

seems safe to be authentic. Our system — wounded at the very core — shuts down and

we lose not only our lover but ourselves as well. This is the deepest loss.

One of my clients called while I was working on this chapter. Her voice on the phone

was shaky and tearful. "I know it's over, I just know it. He's going to leave me." I

remembered that she had said this two weeks ago when I last saw her, and again two

weeks before that.

"You mean it's still going?" I asked.

"Yes, and he even wants to come to therapy with me, but I know it's over. He just
doesn't know how to say it. Why does this always happen to me? I feel so lost right
now, like I hate myself. I just want to disappear."

"Then you're abandoning yourself," I say. "It's not that he has abandoned you,
necessarily, but that you have abandoned yourself over the thought of it. So, of course,
you'll think he'll abandon you, too."

There was sudden calm on the other end of the phone. "Oh," she said. "I get it. You
know I haven't eaten yet today, or taken a shower. I've just been obsessing about this.
What should I do?"

"Go inside to the self that's scared right now. Promise her you'll always be there. Fix her
a nice lunch. Go take a shower. You can't control your boyfriend, but you can promise to
be there yourself. That goes a long way."

When I saw her next it was, indeed, with her boyfriend. He had not left her, nor was he
planning to. Instead he was trying to assure her of his ongoing commitment. She
appeared less clinging, and we were able to facilitate some valuable communication.
Grief that occurs at the end of a relationship is easy to understand. It puts us back in
touch with our primal abandonment, and makes us feel powerless. If acknowledged and
expressed, it eventually passes, but sometimes we carry grief from situations that are
not so obvious, as in the case of Susan.

Susan had a mother who loved her too much. She was an only child and her mother
had little else to occupy her life besides being Susan's mother. Susan felt special and
was never alone. She lacked for nothing in terms of attention, clothing, or toys. Yet
Susan was not allowed her own independence. Her mother was subtly threatened when
she played at friends' houses and later when she began to date. Susan's definition of
love was shaped by her mother. When she did form relationships later in life, she was
as smothering and possessive as her mother had been. When her partner did not lavish
the same amount of attention on her, she felt unloved. While we might assume that
Susan would grow up secure and confident, in actuality, she feared she was not enough
and became quite codependent. She could never replace her mother's real needs for an
authentic life, and so she always felt inadequate.

Susan thought she had had a happy childhood. But her chest was constricted and she
was frequently depressed. As she learned to breathe more deeply, she contacted a vast
reservoir of grief. At first she did not understand why it was there, but as she continued
her grieving process, she recognized through her deeper self that the grief she carried
was a mourning for the loss of her own authenticity.

If we consider that love may indeed be the most important element of well-being and
spiritual growth, then any impairment in our ability to find love is a profound wound.
When we further consider that this impairment affects how we treat each other in the
larger social sphere, we have not only a personal problem, but a serious collective
situation as well. Where grief is the wound, compassion is the healer.
Compassion

Compassion means "to have passion with." In the second chakra we encountered
passion in the realm of feelings, through the desires of the soul reaching forward to
meet its own needs. In the heart chakra, we now reach beyond ourselves and expand
that passion to include an understanding of another's needs. The ego, when secure in
its own autonomy and power, can now surrender willingly toward altruism. If our own
needs have been met and satisfied, we can now share our fullness with another.
Great compassion penetrates into the mj

beings. Like the love of a parent for an only child, the tenderness of the Compa
evasive.

NAGARJUNA (INDIAN, FIRST CENTURY)
The ability to have compassion for others depends first on our ability to be in touch with
our yearnings and pain. Pain opens us to deeper understanding of others and expands
our own limited being. Thus compassion is an exquisite balance of upper and lower
chakra expression. Compassion remains centered, yet open, and it quietly holds the
space for change to occur, providing both the stability of a container and the freedom of
release.

Whoever wishes to attain Buddhahood need not follow the various practice but must
only practice one thing and that is deep compassion.

CHENREZIG

Compassion does not mean that we have to fix things. Most of the time, we can't, but
rather than turn away we can still offer compassion to others. When I work with couples,
I often see that one partner wants compassion while the other feels a demand to make
it different. "I just want you to realize how hard it is for me to be alone with the kids all
day," she says.

"What do you want me to do, quit my job?" he replies impatiently.

She looks hurt and frustrated, as that is not what she meant. What she wanted was

empathy and understanding, not necessarily solutions. She wanted to hear, "I know this

is hard for you. I appreciate the work you're doing." When we can't fix something, it's

even more important to offer compassion.

Devotion

If everyone were perfect, there would be no need for love.

Devotion is an act of selfless love and conscious surrender to a greater force beyond
oneself. In the many branches of yoga, it is the path of bhakti yoga, practiced through
devotional service to a deity or teacher, through which one experiences the
transcendent joy of merging with the divine. Devotion also occurs toward the beloved,
within a family, or to a political cause or project. With devotion we are allowing the
energy within the Self to flow beyond the Self. This transcends our perceived limitations.
When we become parents, we experience selfless devotion to the newborn child as we
transcend the limits of what we thought was possible in terms of loving and giving.
Devotion is a spiritual act of egoless surrender. When the Self binds the spirit too tightly,
then devotion expands the binding by lifting us beyond ourselves. We get the powerful

lesson that the Self survives even without constant attention.

Devotion can also keep us from conscious connection with the Self, especially if the
ego-based stage of reflective consciousness has not already been achieved. We may
find it easier to be directed by the will of another than to work through the labyrinth of
our own inner yearnings. In this case, devotion depletes the ego-centered third chakra
for the purpose of an excessive outpouring in the fourth. If the object of our worship
should leave, fall from grace, or reject us, we are devastated. To heal, we must then
reconnect responsibly to the self within, seeing it as an aspect of divinity in its own right,
and much in need of love and understanding. When balanced, our devotional work
becomes even deeper.

GROWING THE LOTUS

Developmental Formation of the Heart Chakra at a Glance

AGE
4 to 7 years
TASKS

Formation of social identity and gender roles
Development of altruism
Formation of peer relationships
NEEDS AND ISSUES
Initiative vs. guilt
Love vs. rejection
Social acceptance
Self-acceptance

When Alex was about five, he came down with a stomach flu that kept him in bed for
a few days. As he was sick to his stomach, I was not about to force him to eat, but
wanted him to have nourishment if he wanted it. So I prepared some toast, left it on a
plate next to his bed, and tucked him in with his teddy bear. He soon recovered and the
incident was forgotten. A few weeks later, when I was taking an afternoon nap, I woke
to find a plate of awkwardly buttered toast placed on my night table and a teddy bear on
the pillow next to me. This was a true sign he was in the heart chakra stage.
The fourth chakra developmental stage begins when the child moves from the intense
egocentricity and willfulness of the third chakra into a readiness to meet and cooperate
with others. This generally begins between three and four years, after autonomy and
basic impulse control have been established. It may happen suddenly, when the
seemingly impossible child spontaneously does something sweet and kind for someone
else. A child may also swing back to stubborn willfulness at three-and-a-half before
finally moving on to the more loving and harmonious heart chakra stage at around four
years. In the uncertainty of new behavior, a child often runs back to familiar patterns for
security. Development is not always smooth.

As we climb further up the chakras, the exact timing of the developmental stages
becomes less specific. It depends in part on the successful resolution of previous

stages, which varies from case to case, and the variations widen as we get higher.
Unfortunately, many people do not reach the upper chakra stages at all, or do so only
later in life. Therefore, we will now begin to discuss both childhood and adult
development.

In childhood, fourth chakra development marks the formation of our social identity, also
known as the persona. This is the aspect of self that we create to win love, gain social
approval, and get along in the larger world. In the fourth chakra we no longer see the
world entirely in terms of our own needs, and so our relationships expand from being
specifically one-on-one (i.e., child and mother, child and father) to include larger family
and social structures. The child now finds that she is part of Mommy and Daddy's
relationship with each other, and that she has brothers and sisters, classmates,
neighbors, and friends of her own.

The verbal messages that were internalized during the third chakra stage centered
around action and behavior. Now in the fourth chakra stage it is the parent-child
relationship itself that becomes internalized. It is not only the messages Dad continually
gives us about being noisy in the house, but also the context of Dad's relationship with
us that becomes important. If the message was given in the context of fear, we feel fear
along with the internalized message. How we behave and who we become is shaped by
the way we internalize our basic family relationships.

Eric Berne outlined these internal relationships in his theories of transactional analysis,
which describes how we operate from internalized parent, adult, or child scripts. If we
rebel against Dad's messages, we are playing the script of the naughty child with a
critical parent, and aspects of it become part of our internal dialogue. Throughout life,
we may find both roles simultaneously clamoring for the driver's seat, as sometimes we
will be led by rebellious urges, while at others we will be held back by our inner critic.
We also repeat these relationships with others. If a friend criticizes you, they may
suddenly become your critical parent. Then you find yourself reacting like a naughty
child, instead of listening to what they have to say.

Children internalize relationships by imitation. A child who is frequently scolded may be
overheard scolding her doll or best friend. Alex was imitating his mother when he
brought me the toast. This imitation is called identification, and forms the core of the
relationship program. Identification is where the child adopts the beliefs, attitudes,
values, and behaviors of others, and then carries these attitudes into her relationships.
As gender roles get internalized, we develop our gender identification. Watching how
parents, brothers, or sisters behave gives us our first models of how to be boys or girls.
As we watch our big sister play with dolls or put on makeup, watch our brother play with
trains or lizards, watch our mother give herself over to the needs of the family, and see
our father relentlessly pursue his career, we are, for better or worse, developing gender-
oriented behavior programs.

It is here that we take on gender roles. This is the age where boys are told not to cry
and when girls are told to be nice. This splitting and repression of masculine or feminine
comes to the fore again in midlife, when our one-sided development leads us into some
kind of personal crisis. As stated earlier, heart chakra work includes the reintegration of
anima and animus.

The child internalizes not only the relationship he has with his parents but also the entire
family system. He may become an eldest child with new siblings, removed from the
center of attention he once held. He may realize he is the youngest of many siblings,
and learn his social identity from the way his brothers and sisters treat him. Or he may
be the middle child that has to compete for attention. These dynamics took a backseat
in the "it's all about me" stage of the third chakra, but emerge as part of the personality
at chakra four. We then play out this family dynamic in the social arenas of school,
work, clubs, and the families we form as adults. As the growing child joins the family

dynamic, he takes on roles such as that of the good child, scapegoat, hero, clown, or
lost child, to name but a few. These roles are like steps in a dance, unconscious
patterns that form our social identities. What may begin as the conscious cultivation of a
certain behavior ("Mommy likes it when I make her laugh") may grow into a lifelong role
(playing the clown).

The development of a social identity prepares the child for more complex interaction
with the larger world. This requires a delicate balance between maintaining and
relinquishing autonomy, which should have developed in the third chakra. For the child
whose autonomy is weak, there is a tendency to be swept away by others, be defined
by them, or live in fear of losing the self. A kindergartner may steal someone else's
cookies simply because his friend told him to, not realizing it was not his own urge until
he gets in trouble for it. Then he says, "Billy told me to!" A child whose will was overly
indulged may be too self-centered and may get rejected by others, such as the school
bully who dominates the younger children or the egocentric classmate who always
steals the center of attention.

Intellectual development also takes a monumental leap at this stage. We have entered
Piaget's preoperational period where "intellectual development proceeds in the
conceptual-symbolic rather than the earlier sensory-motor arena."6 Having mastered
the basic building blocks of language, the child now begins the task of assembling the
many pieces of his experience. The child is interested in relationships not only between
people, but among all the components of the world around him. He is learning to
assemble raw information into larger concepts that dictate behavior. Instead of using
helpfulness as a way to get a cookie, he realizes that helpfulness is a good concept. He
then wants recognition for his intentions as opposed to his act. This is the good
boy/nice girl stage of moral development described by Lawrence Kohlberg. The child is
creating himself by incorporating new concepts into his growing personality.
Routines are sets of relationships. Children at this age often get upset when standard
routines are disrupted — when someone sits at their place at the table, when taking a
bath occurs before dinner instead of after, or when stability in the household is
disrupted. The introduction of stepparents, other siblings, new households, or changes
in the daily routine of school or day care can be especially disruptive at this stage.
Security and identity are derived from stable relationships. When those relationships
end or are threatened, as through divorce, death, or separation, then the sense of
security and developing social identity can be threatened. The internalized relationship
with ourselves is simultaneously affected. If we lose one of our parents, for example, we
do not get to see how the two genders interact with each other, and hence may not
have that balance in ourselves. (With some marriages, however, this may be a
blessing.)

Finally, this is the age when peer relationships begin developing. A child enters school,
chooses friends, and tries out these behavior programs in the world outside the family.
The child learns whether she is well-liked or rejected, and thus her social identity gets
added on to her ego identity as a new basis for self-esteem. It is interesting that the
most common time for imaginary playmates occurs between ages four and six, as if this
were a practice realm for real relationships.

Since relationships are the formative ground for fourth chakra development, it is
important to ask some basic questions. Do relationships in the family depend on
aggressive fighting for one's rights? Do they depend on giving up oneself to avoid
punishment or rejection? Do they involve the expression of emotions and affection, or
do the parents hide this aspect of their own relationship? Is communication modeled so
that the child sees how problems get worked through, or is the rule to not talk about
anything difficult? Does one parent dominate the other, or is there a sense of
cooperative partnership? Are brothers and sisters given equal attention or is there

favoritism, and, if so, on what is it based? Most of all — is there consistency in
relationships? Is Daddy warm and giving on some days and cruelly abusive on others?
These are the elements that teach the child how to behave in the world.
Erikson has described this stage as being the struggle of initiative vs. guilt, building on
the previous stage of autonomy vs. shame. Autonomy gives rise to initiative in the form
of reaching out toward others. Shame inhibits this reaching out, and inhibits the
awakening of the heart chakra. If the child lacks initiative, she is dependent upon the
reactions of others, and will play a passive role in relationships. Successful handling of
this stage, according to Erikson, results in direction and purpose.
Socialization is where an individual acquires behavior patterns, motivations, attitudes,
and values that the culture deems important. In our current social structure, this process
requires that we deny many aspects of our lower chakras. To be properly socialized, the
child needs to learn to control or rise above her spontaneous aggressive urges,
dependencies, and fears. For males, this may also include the emotions in general.
Thus the social identity often develops at the cost of previous identities. For the child
whose social identity is about pleasing others, for example, the cost may be a denial of
her own needs. The lost child who hides in the background denies his need for
attention. Loss of contact with the original ground creates a kind of existential emptiness
that then gets projected onto relationships. We end up looking to others for security,
emotional fulfillment, or ego enhancement because we have denied these things within
ourselves.

Between chakras three and four, the child may get the message that autonomy and love
are an either-or phenomenon. This is particularly true when conditional love is used to
modify behavior. Johnny soon learns what behavior pleases Mommy and what aspects
of himself meet with rejection. "Mommy ignores me when I cry. She holds me when I'm
quiet." We grow up believing we can either be ourselves or we can be loved, and think it
is impossible to have both at once.

The appropriate completion of our social identity results in a transcendence of the ego
without undue sacrifice of autonomy. The child can identify with others as equally
important as the self and has the ability to cooperate with family, friends, and the larger
social environment.

Every functioning adult has reached at least some basic level of ego development. Still,
there are many adults who have not yet made a transition to the fourth chakra. They
remain stuck in the narcissistic ego-gratification of the third chakra even in their close
relationships, and have difficulty experiencing true empathy and altruism. Crises that
appear in midlife (usually through the pain of failed relationships) often reveal wounds
from early childhood. These lower chakra wounds can then be healed, which allows the
heart chakra to open. In these cases fourth chakra development may occur in midlife,
as we enter the integrative phase of our adult individuation process.
The parts of us that get ignored or outwardly rejected retreat to the realm of the
unconscious. They become part of the shadow, split off from the persona. The persona
is made of aspects that bring us love, while the shadow, those that seem unacceptable.
As adults, part of our fourth chakra work is to reunite the persona with the rejected
shadow for the purpose of balance and wholeness.

Adult development of the heart chakra results in a transcendence of the ego, an
integration of the higher and lower chakras, creation of the sacred marriage of
masculine and feminine, and development of social empathy and altruism. It is the
achievement of balance within, as we integrate our many subpersonalities, and the
expression of that balance through our relationships with others. Indeed, the fourth
chakra is the gateway to spiritual fulfillment and personal mastery. Its reward is self-
acceptance and self-love.

TRAUMAS AND ABUSES

There is nothing more devastating than lack of love. Love is the primal glue of the

universe, the binding force par excellence. As the central integrating chamber, the heart
chakra is the healer, the unifier. Love integrates and lack of love disintegrates. Without
love to bind us together, we separate from the parts of ourselves that drive love away.
We reject the needy parts, the angry parts, the ugly parts. Then we are no longer whole.
Thus children ... are confronted by a tormenter they love, not one they hate, and this
tragic complication will have a devastating influence on their entire subsequent life.

All abuses traumatize the heart chakra as they betray love. Most of these abuses occur
within the context of family relationships. It is bad enough that they happen, but worse
still that they happen at the hands of people we love, people we live with, people we
need to trust. So we suffer not only the abuse, but also a distortion of the relationship in
which it occurs. We shut down the connection, close off the heart, and pull back into
ourselves.

When primary relationships distort, we diminish our ability to love and connect — to
become relational. To be relational means, simply, that we are able to relate or can
align our own experiences to a larger context outside. In relating, we connect to things,
and see how they are connected to each other. So many of my clients, women in
particular, complain about the lack of energy their partners put into their relationships.
Their men, they say, act as if they live in a world of their own where the relationship is
an afterthought or something they take for granted. These men (and it happens to
women, too) see relationships as things rather than as living processes. Their capacity
to be relational is underdeveloped.

When relationships are distorted, so is our sense of how things connect. Seeing the
bigger picture — the context in which life is embedded — becomes impaired. This
prevents us from rising into a larger sense of our own being.

A young child is an open, unarmored being who is completely dependent on his
caretakers. In this state, the child is an uninhibited channel of love for those who care
for him. His first understanding of love comes from the fulfillment of his survival and
dependency needs — that he is cared for, attended to, and safe. When he is mirrored
and nurtured, and when his autonomy is supported, he is also being loved. If all has
gone well, a good foundation for dependent love has been built by the time the child
reaches the fourth chakra stage. They perceive the parents as the ones to whom they
relate for their personal needs and who help them understand the complex world
around them.

It is literally heartbreaking when the trust and love that a child has for his caretakers is
used against him. In adult relationships, we have the choice (perceived or not) to get up
and leave when someone mistreats us; a child does not have this choice. A child does
not even have the choice not to love.

The effects of this mistreatment occur simultaneously on three levels:

The experience of the abuse, which may create traumas that distort the natural
development of the body and psyche in any of the chakras.
The interpretation of the abuse, which is usually attributed to our own
shortcomings, as opposed to those of our parents.

The fusion of the abuse with love, where the two become related to each other,
inseparably linked. This link perpetuates abuse in adult relationships.
If a child is attended to superficially but not touched or given specific attention, then his
love for others will be equally superficial. He suffers physically from the lack of touch;
emotionally, from feelings of shame; and conceptually, from a distorted concept of love.
If a father sexually abuses his daughter who loves and trusts him, he is teaching her a
distorted form of relating where there is no respect for boundaries. Adult survivors of

such abuse often feel disembodied, have poor boundaries in their love relationships,
and may define their worth in sexual terms. If a child is ignored or shamed by the very
people who are most important in her life, then she internalizes that distortion in his
relationship to herself. Her own internal voice will carry that criticism, and keep her in a
state of utter worthlessness. In relationships with others, she will find people who will
corroborate that worthlessness and perpetuate the cycle.

Any form of abuse impacts these three levels: the developmental process, our self-
esteem, and relationship to others. Each of these levels will be discussed in more detail
below.

The Abuse Itself

JOHN BRADSHAW

I worked with a woman who had been adopted by an aunt after her parents were
suddenly killed in World War II. Her aunt constantly compared her to her natural
children. "Why don't you do as well in school as your sister? You must be stupid! Why
are you so lazy compared to your brother? What's wrong with you?" Even though she
was cared for superficially, the original trauma of losing her parents was never
addressed, leaving her at a disadvantage. There was no time to heal or repair
developmental gaps before moving on to later stages. Of course, she could not
compete with siblings who had not had such traumas.

Abuse is the antithesis of love. If we do not get the love we need, we lack the basic
ingredient necessary to assemble ourselves. Abuse of any kind undermines the natural
developmental process as it interferes with the internal wiring of the physical, emotional,
and psychic system. If this happened in our stereo, we would have irregular volume
control, distorted sound quality, or static interference. When it happens in the psyche,
we feel like defective merchandise — our fine-tuning is out of kilter.
Abuse interferes with our love of life. If life hurts, or is lonely, rejecting, empty, hostile, or
dangerous, then we do not want to relate to it. Life becomes a painful experience, a
process to be endured. We no longer love being alive; we no longer meet life with hope
and enthusiasm. We become withdrawn, depressed, blocked. The natural flow of
energy can no longer move forward.
Loss of Self-Love

Since we usually identify with our caretakers and their values, the way they treat us
teaches us about our value as human beings. We take on their attitudes toward us.
Abuse makes us feel unlovable, and feeling defective only adds to our shame. We
become an object to ourselves, even an object of contempt. Unlovable, we are no
longer in touch with our divinity, our specialness, our validity as human beings.
Convinced that the fault lies in some intrinsic flaw, to which we are blind and helpless,
we abandon ourselves.

Without relationship to the self, reflective consciousness is impossible. We are cut adrift,
disconnected from our ground, lost and lonely, and end up seeking our ground through
another. They become our reality, and the weight we impose upon them — the weight of
our own self-denial — usually drives them away. We then lose all the energy we have
invested in them, including pieces of ourselves. "I gave her everything! How could she
possibly leave me?" When we give everything, we are bankrupting ourselves. We lack a
center to which others can be attracted because, quite simply, no one is home. There is
no one inside us to love because we have given ourselves away.
Internalized Relationships

Internalized relationships form archetypal components of our psyche. Our relationship to
our mother comes to represent more than how we feel about Mom, it affects how we
understand the archetypal symbol of Mother as well as the feminine in general. If our
mother mistreated us, our internal relationship to the feminine and all it represents will

be impaired. If she withheld these qualities, we will expect them to be withheld
everywhere, even by men. If she used them as a means for control, we will fear being
controlled by our need for them. As we project this impairment on the women we meet
in life, we find that we are relating more to our damaged internal image of the feminine
than to the actual women we meet. Our anger, expectations, defenses, and needs all
get woven into the relationship and may get tangled with our partner's internal
framework, which may also be just as damaged. This is grounds for a mess indeed!
Then we have two people relating from their wounds and defenses, rather than from
their wholeness. They see their own projections, rather than each other. Unfortunately,
this is frequently par for the course. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
All acts of abuse occur within the context of relationship. Relationship thus becomes the
field in which all events are interpreted, and the ground in which they are later
internalized.

The way our father treated us affects our relationship with all men as well as our internal
masculine. How we relate to the masculine qualities of aggression, authority, logic, or
initiative, and how we project these qualities onto men have major consequences for
our relationships. 7 Often we pick the same kind of person as our parent yet expect
different results.

Larinda had always admired her father for his successful career and his hardworking,
selfless attitudes toward the family. She defended him when her mother would complain
about how he was never home, or how he didn't spend much time with the children.
Larinda married a man she admired for these same qualities and soon found herself a
widow to workaholism, alone with her children with no one to talk to. As she had
rejected her mother's feelings, she also denied her own feelings. In compensation for
that denial she turned to alcohol. When she finally dealt with her alcoholism, she was
forced to confront both her unmet needs as a child and the way her image of her father
had masked her feelings of abandonment.

Harville Hendrix, in his best-selling book Getting the Love You Want, calls the
internalized relationship with our mother or father an imago. The imago is a "composite
picture of the people who have influenced you most strongly at an early age."8 This
image is not formed in the conscious mind but is like a template etched into the nervous
system over years of constant interaction with our family. It programs our reactions,
defenses, behaviors, and interpretations of events. It becomes part of our character
armor, part of our personality.

Our relationship to internalized archetypal forces defines our relationship to the world.
Whether we approach the world from a place of responsibility or rebellion, from
expecting acceptance or rejection, all this remains part of our relationship program. The
initial imprint shaping this program is the family. Only by unraveling these primary
relationships can we hope to find the self-reflective consciousness necessary to break
the habitual patterns and create new and productive relationships.
Our current relationships always provide the training ground for this process. They put
us on the cutting edge of our growth, for who but our intimate partner knows best our
hopes and fears, strengths and weaknesses? Who but our partner bears the brunt of
our expectations and angers, our projections and manipulations? Who but our partner is
the best mirror for our growth?

The heart chakra is about bonding. Unintegrated parts of ourselves that are not bonded
into the heart with love will seek bonding elsewhere. Our shamed little child may bond
with our partner's critical parent, and constantly recreate a dynamic that keeps us
feeling worthless. Our rejected anger may seek someone who carries a temper, giving
us ample opportunities to reclaim this lost piece of ourselves. Our various selves seek
bonds that are permanent.

Unfortunately, bonding patterns are not always fun. We can become trapped in them,

oppressed by them. We lose the freshness of seeing our partner as who they really are,
and instead see only the critical parent, needy child, or rejecting aspect of their
personality. The only way to break these patterns is to become conscious of these
relationships within ourselves — to listen, discover, and honor the many aspects of our
inner complexity.
Twisted Concepts of Love

Conflicted relationships skew our conception of love. Since the child is so dependent,
there is no room in the child's mind for the contradiction between love and abuse. To
keep their world consistent, children deny the effects of abuse or convince themselves
that they deserve it. Even acts of cruelty are seen as acts of love. When a child is being
spanked and told, "This hurts me as much as it hurts you. I'm only doing it because I
love you," the child is given a very strange message about what love is. They equate
love with pain and with mistreatment. As recipients of that love, it becomes their duty to
bear the pain and not question it. Alice Miller, in her aptly named book For Your Own
Good, describes pointedly: "When what was done to me was done for my own good,
then I am expected to accept this treatment as an essential part of life and not question
it."9 This acceptance impacts the heart chakra, as well as the upper three chakras,
affecting our ability to speak our truth, to see clearly, and to question in general.
The love a child has for his or her parents ensures that their conscious or unconscious
acts of mental cruelty will go undetected.

ALICE MILLER

Later, in adult relationships, we may be blind to abuse from our partner. We do not fully
believe we are being mistreated, carrying in our hearts the illusion of being loved.
Bradshaw has named this the fantasy bond. It is an illusion that keeps us believing that
our partner (father, mother, friend, lover) really does love us — maybe today is just a bad
day, we did something wrong, or it will be better tomorrow. We know it will change if
only we could do this or did not do that. We make excuses for their behavior, and
continue to accept what would normally be unacceptable. As the child has an incessant
need to feel loved at all costs, he fantasizes a love when it is not really there.
Rejection

No section on heart chakra traumas would be complete without a discussion of
rejection. A universal experience that wounds us all, rejection is a fear that dwells at the
core of the human heart. It brings people into their deepest despair, their darkest fears,
and their heaviest grief. Fear of rejection is the prime reason we hold back our love and

close down the heart chakra.

At the moment of betrayal a wound is opened in our most vulnerable spot — our original
trust — which is that of a totally defenseless infant who cannot survive in the world
except in someone's arms.

ALDO CARATENUTO

When rejection occurs, we often feel helpless. Our self-esteem plummets, our feelings
mire us in unfathomable depression, and our body aches with longing. We think we
cannot live, and indeed, the urge to kill oneself over the loss of love is a universal theme
that has plagued people for as long as the force of love has ruled our hearts.
Rejection says we are unworthy and magnifies our basic shame to whatever degree we
carry it. It turns us against ourselves, creating what is perhaps the deepest wound of all.
Why does rejection by another so profoundly affect our inner state?
For young children, rejection is equivalent to death. Without the love of parents, what
guarantee is there that we will be cared for? For many, the experience of losing love
triggers the infantile state of an abandoned child, a state of intolerable helplessness
totally incongruent with our adult self.

A child identifies with her parents, imitating their behavior and adopting their values as
she learns about life. As adults, when we love someone deeply, we also identify with

them to a certain extent. We identify with their sorrows and pains, their triumphs and
joys. We often share their feelings as if they were our own. When our loved one suffers,
we suffer with them in our caring. The deeper we love, the more we drop the boundaries
of separateness and the stronger our identification with the other.
So what happens when we get rejected? If we are still identified with the one who is
rejecting us, then we adopt the same stance and reject ourselves. For the child who is
identified with his parents, he will learn to devalue himself, even to hate himself. For the
adult who loses his beloved, he is left not only with the loss, but also with a negative
message from someone he respects saying he is flawed, unworthy, and unwanted! If
the relationship has been a close one, then he has probably shared many values and is
likely to buy into his lover's rejection as a statement of truth about himself. So we
identify with the deserter and dis-identify with ourselves. We move against the natural
self-acceptance of this chakra and move instead toward self-rejection and grief.
Some people, when rejected, get angry instead of sad. This is often a means of self-
preservation, as it breaks the negative bonding and overidentification. When we say,
"You lousy sonuvabitch, how could you? I didn't deserve this!" we cease to identify with
the cause of our pain and stand a better chance of reidentifying with ourselves.
Sometimes, however, rejection does uncover truths we need to face. There is seldom a
louder wake-up call than the actual or threatened loss of someone we love. As a force
for change, it is one of the strongest, but also one of the hardest. Too much anger may
obscure the powerful lessons that are presenting themselves.

It is important to differentiate between overidentification with the lover and truths we
need to learn. If there are important lessons to be learned, we need to face them with
an attitude of self-compassion, as there is no time when compassion is more needed
than in the depths of grief. It is compassion alone that allows us to reconnect with the
self and stop identifying with the parent, lover, or friend who has betrayed, rejected, or
devalued us. The grief must be shed, and in that grief, connection to the core self can
be made once again.

CHARACTER STRUCTURE

The Rigid

Henry was the character type that is least likely to enter therapy. He was a good-
looking, personable, and highly successful CEO in a large company. His body radiated
vitality and readiness, with well-toned muscles and erect posture. Had I not been
familiar with character structures, I would have wondered what he was doing there.
After a few minutes of hearing Henry speak it became apparent that his energy, though
highly charged, was held in the back of his body. As I watched him move, I could see
his back was slightly arched and that his arms never reached out very far in front of him
when he spoke. His impressive energy was without depth, as if caught in a loop. He
admitted to being a mystery to himself. He had had a long string of relationships as
many women had fallen in love with him, but somehow he always grew bored and
moved on. Henry was trapped in a highly charged energy system that could not open to
deeper feelings. Henry's heart was blocked.

His blocked feelings were largely due to parental rejection, which began during his
fourth chakra developmental period. Although originally loving and supportive, his
parents suddenly expected him to grow up and chided him for his immature need for
love and security. He was no longer allowed to climb on their laps, ask for hugs, or cry
when he was sad. The birth of a younger sister diverted the special attention he was
used to, and he was now expected to act like a man at the tender age of five. Henry
remembers that on his first day in kindergarten, he was afraid to get on the school bus.
He cried and clung to his mother and later that night he was deeply scorned for his
childish behavior. He was told that he was too old for that sort of thing and that it would
not be tolerated. In order to stop the flow of such feelings, he stiffened his body and

restricted his breath. In typical military posture, he puffed up his chest and gave the
appearance of confidence. His chest, however, did not expand and contract with the
breath but instead became a tight container for the emotional energy that could not flow
outward through the heart (see this page, Rigid Character).

His father, also an ambitious career man, had such high expectations for him that Henry
never felt like he was good enough. In high school, he was a football star and honor roll
student. He had fantasies of becoming a great scientist and finally winning his father's
approval. His father, however, was still distant, focused on his own work, and paid
attention to Henry only long enough to tell him how he could have done better. His
mother stood by silently and supported her husband in this behavior while she poured
tenderness on his younger sister.

No matter what Henry did, his authentic self was rejected. Each time he tried to win
approval, his heart was broken. Forced to rise above his need for love, he channeled
his aggressive energy into achievement, unconsciously hoping it would win the love and
recognition he craved. But his heart had long ago been forced to close down, and even
when love was forthcoming, as it often was from women, he was unable to experience
the satisfaction of being enough. In fact, love given in admiration increases the feeling
that there is no love for the authentic, vulnerable self. This does not bring real
satisfaction or healing and so the rigid character restlessly moves on.
At the developmental period when Henry's heart would be most open and inquisitive, he
was told to shut down his feelings and perform. This rejection of the true self in favor of
the achieving self is what gives this character structure its more positive name of the
Achiever. Energetically, Henry shut down both the second and fourth chakras, while
squeezing his life force tightly into the third chakra ego/activity center. There it poured
out into successful business activity, fueled by drive and ambition (see figure 4.2).
Indeed, it seems a very natural state of affairs for men to have irrational moods and
women irrational opinions.

C. G.JUNG

Rigid character types hold back energetically. They are disconnected from their shadow
and therefore afraid to surrender to their own feelings. They are out of touch with their
inner child, as they were not allowed to be children for very long. No matter what they
achieve, they never feel they have enough and can never get to a place where they can
just let things be. They are disposed to action without satisfaction, which leaves them in
a constant state of frustration. Their energy is channeled into more and greater
achievement until they eventually become addicted to substances (cocaine is a
particular favorite for this character type) or simply burn out with exhaustion. At this
point, life forces a vulnerability that can no longer be denied and healing can begin.
Healing the Achiever requires meeting the vulnerable child on his own ground and
letting him feel that he is enough just as he is. Encouragement of the softer feelings with
positive mirroring helps the Rigid type discover his inner emotions and enhance their
flow. Helping him release the binding in the chest and express feeling with the arms
unlocks the heart chakra and helps the energy descend into the ground. General
techniques will be discussed in the healing section.
The Hysteric

Since men are so often robbed of their tears and vulnerability, the Rigid character
pattern tends to manifest more often in men. Women, with more cultural permission to
express feelings, tend toward the Hysteric character structure. The original wound is
similar — rejection from the father as the child matures, lack of empathy for the child, and
high expectations for performance. For the feeling/expressive type, this rejection is met
with feelings that are pushed forward, most often in melodramatic exaggeration, as a
way to get the attention she craves. The tendency to express emotions hysterically
becomes habitual, and she may not even notice that her reactions are extreme by other

people's standards. Since she craves love, she focuses heavily on family and
relationships with a desire for closeness that becomes demanding and possessive,
rather than accepting and inviting. The Hysteric is changeable and highly charged, but
her expression is uneven and sporadic, varying from angry outbursts to pouting
withdrawal.

The Hysteric has a pear-shaped body — petite and almost childlike above the waist, with
larger hips and thighs (see this page, Hysteric Character). The wound to the heart
chakra is evident in the rigidity of her chest. She may have trouble breathing when
triggered emotionally, which only creates panic and even more extreme emotions. Like
the Rigid type, the Hysteric lives chiefly in her persona without realizing that she is
forfeiting authenticity. She feels most authentic when expressing strong emotions, as
this is the way her psyche balances the habitual inhibition of the core self. Thus she
identifies chiefly with her social and emotional identities, creating excess in chakra two.
On the positive side, Hysterics can be caring and supportive when their needs are met,
and charming in social situations. Some find their unpredictable nature exciting. Like the
Rigid type, they are highly charged and seem very alive (see figure 4.3).
Both the Hysteric and the Rigid/Achiever have developed the ability to close down their
heart chakra rapidly and at will. Indeed, the heart only opens tentatively for short,
intense periods, as exceptions to its basic distrustful state. They long for closeness, but
feeling inadequate they fear that intimacy will reveal their shortcomings. They are
usually charming and seductive and well-loved by others, but they seldom believe that
their close relationships are authentic since they, themselves, are seldom authentic.
Figure 4.2. Rigid Character Structure (the Achiever)
The Hurried Child

FIRST
CHAKIA

SECOND
CHAKftA

THUD
CHAKKA

tcniw

FOURTH
CH AKtA

CUo*m

Usually ha*
good body
ton* and
weight balance

Feats
surrendering
lO emotions

Child given
high expectation

unaccepted

Good contact
with reality

Unaware of
own needs

Strives for
perfection

Needs
achievement
to reel deserving
of love

Hardworking

Frari intimacy

Competitive

Longs for
tenderness, but
ha* difficulty

Often
prosperous

Hold* back impulse
to reach out

Agrtisive,
eaiily angered

Need* father
approval

Difficulty
relaxing

Controlled,
proud

Approval
equated
with love

Unas* we red
wanting a*
a child

Take* refuge
in work

Heart open*
and close*
rapidly

High ego
needs

Afraid of
involvement,
commitment

Defeniive,
on guard

Feel* opposed
and challenged

■FIFTH
CH AKRA

SIXTH
CHAKKA

SEVENTH
CHAKKA

Balanced wpall

Strong verbally

Sixth t'hikn is often
irTclcvint, interest
is in pragmanc
at't'om plish en t n cs

Mart pngitutk than
spiritually inclined,
bur long* for spiritual
connection

Voice may be thin
or controlled

May delight in
logical abstractions,
symbols, dreams, but
not think of them
on their own

Intelligent

Defensive
verbally

Rational

Expressive, but not
of inner emotions

Logical

Figure 4.3. Hysteric Character Structure (expressive)
The Hurried Child

FIRST
CHAKtA

SECOND
CH AKS A

THUD
CHAK«A

FOURTH
CHAKR A

Usually has
good body
tone and
weight balance

emotions

Lniiu given
premature
responsibility,
high expectations

rccis
unaccepted

Childlike—

WitllL3 IU DC

taken care of

Strong

r 1 rlltrT-f IfkllLkl
L L 1 IU LI kJu I -ml

outbursts

Strives for

Needs

jch irvrmc nt

to feel deserving
of love

ignores nceos
until they
get big

competitive

i^unjp rt>r
tenderness, but
has difficulty
admitting it

Fears intimacy

Agreuive.
easily angered

Needs father
approval

Difficulty
relaxing

High ego
needs

Approval
equated
with love

Unanswered
wanting
as a child

Defensive,
on guard

Heart opens
and closes
rapidly

Feels opposed
and challenged

Afraid of
involvement,
commitment

FIFTH
CHAK*A

BaW«l

Strong verbally

Voice may be thin
or controlled

Defensive
verbally

Expressive

SIXTH
CHAKtA

May I* ritkif

Sixth chakra is often
irrelevant, interest
is in pragmatic
accomplishments

May delight in
logical abstractions,
symbols, dreams, but
not think of them
on their own

SEVENTH
CHAKRA

More pragmatic than
spiritually inclined,
but longs for spiritual
connection

Intelligent

Rational

Logical

It can be frustrating to have relationships with either of these types. Their difficulty with
reciprocating tenderness might suggest that they are often rejected, but in fact, they are
so defended against rejection it is more likely that they will leave a relationship first.
They unconsciously do to others what they most fear for themselves, thus keeping their
heart chakras depleted and perpetuating their original patterns.

In truth, they are hungry for love — real love that is directed toward their feeling self, the
nonachieving self, the simple, vulnerable, authentic self connected to the unloved child.

Excess

It is always somewhat disconcerting to think of an excess in the heart chakra as being a
problem, and I repeatedly get questions about this in my workshops. How can we have
too much love? How can the heart be too open? Do we really need to limit ourselves as
we open the heart? Is there a proper level of openness to aim for?
In order to develop love — universal love, cosmic love, whatever you would like to call
it— one must accept the whole situation of life as it is, both the light and the dark, the

Excess in the heart chakra is not an excess of actual love, but an excessive use of love
for our own needs. Excess occurs when we overcompensate for our own wounds. Since
love, by nature, involves others, then others become victims in our drama of
overcompensating. Excessive love is desperate in its need for constant assurance, and
does not uphold another's freedom to be who they are. It is love that is used like a drug,
where the goal is to get high and remove ourselves from our responsibilities and
unresolved pain. We are in excess when we use love to compensate for the
incompleteness in ourselves, or when we use another to go where we cannot or will not
go ourselves (see figure 4.4).

Connie complained that she gained five pounds during her mother's last visit. "What
happened?" I asked. "Mom kept wanting to take care of me, to feed me, to do
everything for me. If I objected she got terribly hurt, claiming that I was rejecting her
love. So I ate food when I wasn't hungry. I didn't do my normal workout routine. I didn't
return my business calls. I got behind in everything."

What Connie's mother assumed was loving behavior was actually smothering her
daughter. Her mother's hurt about having her noble efforts rejected was proof that the
gifts were not really given for Connie's well-being but for her own. Connie's mother is a
codependent, but in listening to the story we can see that Connie is codependent as
well. Rather than risk her mother's hurt, she went against her own needs. She did not
enjoy the visit, and was not looking forward to the next one.

By definition, the heart chakra is about reaching beyond the self and connecting with
others. Codependency expresses an excessive heart chakra, where the emphasis on
the other is out of balance. The compulsive need to fixate on others with excessive
caretaking and meddling is a behavior that arises from our own denied needs for such
care. Out of touch with our own needs, we hope this behavior will earn the right to be
loved in return. Yet this denies the other's self-reliance. Codependency is not an act of
love, but an obsession clothed in the guise of love.

An excessive heart chakra can be demanding and possessive. It is passionately
connected, but often blindly so. Love becomes an obsession in which the loved one is

Excess

An excessive fourth chakra has such strong
movement outward that very little energy can
get in . This eventually depletes the core,
which tries to replenish itself by connecting
with others in the same excessive manner that
caused the depletion.

Deficiency

Rigid boundaries keep the inside from coming
out and the outside fram coming in, resulting
in isolation, which perpetuates deficiency.

Figure 4.4. Fourth Chakra Excess and Deficiency

more an extension of ourselves than a separate being. Jealousy is a projection of our
insecurities, a product of the hungry heart. Eros and Thanatos are out of balance. We
crave connection and cannot tolerate separation. A jealous person needs constant
reassurance and attention and their neediness tends to result in a rejection that only
deepens the underlying wound and creates even more insecurity.
Since the need for love is so strong in the excessive heart chakra, there may be poor
boundaries and poor discrimination. We may fail to discern when a relationship
becomes abusive and live in the fantasy bond where everything is just fine. There may
be idealistic thinking about the perfection of love that continually gets betrayed by hard,
cold reality. We may expect the moon from our lover — even be willing to give it
ourselves — and fail to see why our expectations are not matched in kind. The excessive
focus on love is like an addiction that undermines clarity and judgment.
Deficiency

Alan was going through a divorce. "I'll never fall in love again," he declared. "It is not
worth it. This hurts too much." His friends all told him he would find someone else
before too long. "I don't want someone else!" he exclaimed. "This one was perfect. If I
can't have it, I'm never going to make a commitment again!"

Alan was reacting to his wound with an avoidant response. He was closing shop — no
more business, no more risk. I knew that Alan was actually a very loving person, so I
knew his response was not permanent. Having had his heart opened and then broken, it
was natural for him to shut down for a while. Unfortunately, some people adopt this as a
basic stance during childhood and for them, shutting down becomes a more serious
condition.

The deficient heart chakra responds to wounds of love by withdrawing. Having been
hurt before, the heart becomes a closed system and love becomes conditional. It says,
"If you don't treat me better, I won't give you any more love." "If you don't call me on
time, I'll pretend I don't care." The heart plays a game of coldness, as if the withdrawal
of love can manipulate someone into loving us more. Feeling depleted to begin with, a
deficient heart wants others to make the first move. What a contrast to the codependent
that gives compulsively whether it is wanted or not!

The deficient heart chakra is usually waiting for a knight in shining armor or a fairy
godmother to come along and play rescue. He or she wants someone to see how hurt
they are, and to fix it. They want energy to be poured into the system without taking any
risks themselves, as risks have proved painful in the past (see figure 4.4). As the heart
is basically depleted, one feels they cannot afford to open and give. Without giving, the
inner economy collapses and depression sets in. Like having a dead battery, we keep
waiting for a jump start. If we never let the battery charge, we need that jump start
continually.

With a deficient heart chakra, there is a tendency to dwell on old relationships that
ended long ago because it was a time when one felt loved. One might remain stuck in
anger and betrayal and never forgive. The fact that the heart did not get filled up is seen
as the other person's fault rather than one's own responsibility. Unwillingness to forgive
keeps the heart closed.

The deficient heart chakra is an avoidant response to too little love. Since the unloved
child did not get met with empathy for their experience, they have trouble giving
empathy to others (as well as themselves). They lack compassion and remain critical
and judgmental, which hurts the people they love and closes channels for expression
and reception.

Past hurts may result in bitterness and cynicism — a kind of generic intolerance.
Judgment is a way of justifying distance from others and defending against closeness
and the risk of getting hurt again. If others are not good enough, then we can feel
righteous instead of rejected. Loss of love reduces self-esteem and our righteousness

gives us a false sense of pride. We are better than others who are not worthy of our
love. This is a projection of our own emptiness and unworthiness. It is likely we will
judge ourselves with the same lack of compassion.

David spent several sessions bemoaning the fact that he could never say, "I love you."
He was capable of love, but feared expressing it. His heart chakra was so wounded that
he felt he could not afford the risk of rejection. Without opening those channels, he also
could not receive the love his friends had for him and remained isolated and lonely. If
one complains of basic loneliness, it is likely the heart chakra is deficient. There are so
many people in this world who need love — perhaps we are a bit too picky if we can't find
any?

A deficient heart chakra feels basically unlovable at the core. When engaged in a
relationship, one fears that intimacy may reveal this basic, unacceptable core. If there is
not enough self-love to promote pride in one's interior, it remains hidden and
unrevealed. Without intimacy, the heart does not get filled, and so the cycle perpetuates
itself.

CotyfcuAnoNS

And the day came when the need to remain closed became more painful than the risk to
open.

ANONYMOUS

You may have read these two sections and found yourself identifying with both. It is
common to go back and forth at different times in life. I tend toward codependence
myself, until I get hurt, at which point I withdraw and shut down. When I am in love, I am
overflowing and have extra for everybody. When I feel rejected, I tell everybody to go
away and leave me alone even though I secretly want someone to take care of me.
When a heart has been too open, it is natural for it to shut down. When the heart has
experienced enough loneliness, it may be ready to open up again. We may feel full of
love one day, and angry and resentful the next. We may have some deficient or
excessive characteristics, but not all of our characteristics are so. What is important is to
examine the basic stance we take in life and to bring that stance into balance whenever
we can.

RESTORING THE LOTUS

Healing the Heart Chakra

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Love is the essence that heals. Patience, skill, training, and talent all play their part, but
without love they are merely techniques. All wounds cry for the universal medicine of
love. As the cosmic glue of the universe, love is the force that bridges the gaps that cut
us asunder. In the gap between Heaven and Earth, love is the binding force that holds
together the many-colored steps of the Rainbow Bridge.

Unfortunately, due to the damage we have each received in our lives, we are not always
sure how to apply love to the wounds within ourselves and others. We do not know what
real love looks like or how to create it.

The following suggestions only scratch the surface of this vast subject, but give you a
place to begin.

The Task of Self-Acceptance

In order to love, there has to be someone home inside. As we open up to the more
universal elements of love, it is easy to forget to honor each other's individuality. Soulful
love, as Thomas Moore has so aptly stated, is neither abstract nor empty, but worships

the particular, the unique, the individuated self.

In honoring our individuality, we honor the subtle relationships within ourselves. We
honor the individuality of every composite part: the part that seeks success, the part that
fears it, the part that longs for commitment, the part that wants freedom, the inner child,
the rebellious teenager, the pleaser, the nurturing parent, and all the other selves we
observe as we go through life. They may want different things at different times, or even
different things at the same time.

Learning to coordinate these internal relationships is the inner work of self-love. Our
feelings are brought into relationship with our belief systems; our vulnerable child forms
an alliance with our responsible adult; our inner masculine makes love with the inner
feminine. Our inner critic, rather than permeating every thought, becomes realistically
related to our self-protection. The parts are many and the combinations infinite. Only
through this relational process do we form a sense of the whole.
It is not enough to merely recognize the pieces of ourselves — we need to reclaim them
with that sense of bonding we call love. Recognizing each part as an essential element
of the whole brings our disparate selves home to the integrating chamber of the heart.
The heart's natural inclination is to create bonding. Just as heart cells under a
microscope will always beat in unison, so too, our various subpersonalities will form a
harmonious unity when they are brought into the loving awareness of the heart chakra.
What is not brought into relationship with the core essence of the heart remains outside
of the whole, an unacknowledged part. In chakra two, for example, we talked about
these parts as rejected selves or the shadow.

As we reflect upon ourselves, we integrate more and more pieces of ourselves. Our
sense of the whole becomes larger and stronger. Like an ecosystem whose stability and
magnificence increases with diversity, the whole of a person gains beauty and stability
as more and more parts become integrated. We become more complex, more mature,
and capable of greater and greater possibilities. This sets the ground for creativity in
chakra five, and for penetrating insight and understanding in chakras six and seven.
Reflective consciousness allows this integration and it is the task usually undertaken
through psychotherapy.

As we become more integrated, we become more relational. Our capacity for
understanding and working with outer relationships is enhanced by the sophistication of
our inner one. Instead of relating from a single part of ourselves, which makes us
inflexible, we have a broader base from which to relate. There is simply more there for
another to be attracted to, and more of us there to meet them. If we have accepted our
own inner child, we can better accept that aspect in another.

Self-acceptance sets the stage for our social identity. It allows us to understand
complex social interdependence and the sense of collective identity we all need to
develop at this time in history. Having the capacity to perceive, understand, and form
relationships is essential to this process. We can then see our role within the complex
web of relationships around us, and can bring balance to the larger components of our
culture.

EXERCISE: THE INNER FAMILY

Make a list of the various parts of yourself. You might list the inner child, the critic, the
lover, the clown, the parent, the achiever, the quiet one, and so on — the possibilities are
infinite. Next to each name on the list, write a few words describing how you perceive
this part of yourself. The inner child might be described as playful or wounded, needy or
angry, scared, cute, or awkward. The achiever might be driving, relentless, exhausted,
or enthused.

After the description, write down what you think each part wants. The clown might want
to be liked, the inner child might want to have fun, the critic to make sure we are always
perfect. How often do these parts succeed in getting what they want? How realistic are
their desires? What can be done to bring them into wholeness?

If you want to get more elaborate, you can start to look at who relates to whom. Does
the hardworking adult relate to the inner child? Does the critic inhibit the artist? Does the
clown entertain the sad inner child? Does the hero try and save everybody? If you see
parts that clearly need to improve their relationship, write a dialog between them, as if
you were writing a play. See how the dynamics develop. Let the dialog continue until
some kind of resolution occurs.
Love Opens with Feeling

Feelings are the antennae of the soul. Whenever our feelings are hurt (especially as
children) we react protectively and close down our feelings. We described the realm of
feelings in the second chakra as an internal flow of energy that moves through the body.
In the heart chakra, we access the feelings by use of the breath. When we hold back
our feelings, we hold our breath. When we hold the breath, we restrict the vital
nourishment of air to our cells and muscles, and in effect, deaden ourselves. Deepening
the breath allows repressed feelings to surface and be mobilized, freeing the heart from
the heaviness of grief and allowing the natural balance of taking in and letting go to be
restored.

It is advisable to do breath work with a trusted friend or therapist who can act as a
container, catalyst, or anchor for your feelings as they emerge. If you do not have
someone to work with, you can practice breathing exercises from yoga (called
pranayama), which help to open the chest and charge the body with the vital energy of
prana that is found in the element air. Some of these exercises have been described in
my previous books or can be found in most books on yoga.
OBSERVING THE BREATH

Most of us do not notice how we breathe. We do not feel how we hold the breath or
constrict various parts of the belly or chest. Our way of breathing is normal to us.
The first step in breath work is to feel your own breathing and have someone else watch
you breathe. Let him or her give you feedback on whether you hold your breath at any
part of the breathing cycle. Some people hold for a few moments before they exhale,
while others hold their breath for a short time before taking the next breath. Allow the
breath to become smooth and balanced in its cycle. Notice whether you breathe from
your chest or your belly, and see what happens when you consciously expand the parts
that are normally restricted. Notice what feelings, impulses, and desires arise. Try not to
block these feelings.

REACHING OUT AND TAKING IN WITH THE BREATH

A simple but profound exercise for opening the heart coordinates the reaching out and
taking in movement of the arms with the exhale and inhale of the breath. The
instructions given here are for the facilitator.

Step One: Have your friend lay down on a mat with knees bent, so that the feet have
contact with the ground. Notice the breathing that is already there and become aware of
its rhythms. Gently encourage awareness of the parts that are held and those that do
not seem to expand or contract with the breath. If your partner is comfortable with touch,
you might bring attention to the held parts by gently touching them. It also helps to
lightly massage the shoulders and arms, the pectoral muscles that join the shoulders to
the chest, and the area of the back behind the heart chakra. If the heart area is
constricted to a point where the back is rounded forward, I sometimes put a pillow under
the heart that encourages the back to arch in the opposite direction. Once the breath
seems as full as possible and your friend has relaxed into it, you are ready to begin the
next step.

Step Two: Encourage your partner to reach her arms forward with each exhale, and to
pull her arms in toward the heart chakra with each inhale. These motions should be
slow and conscious. When we pull in, it helps to imagine just what we are reaching for
in terms of love. When we exhale, imagine what we are either letting go of, or what we

are offering to the world. For example, one might suggest: "Think of the things that
make you feel loved, and pull them toward you." "Imagine letting go of the fear of
rejection." "Offer the love from your own heart as you push outward."
After a few moments of this, you may notice which of these motions is easier for your
partner; there may be hesitation, or blockage in one direction more than another. Simply
point out this observation and see if your friend is aware of it.

Step Three: Stand over your partner and grab onto her hands. When she pulls her arms
in toward her heart, offer a bit of resistance. When she pushes away, offer resistance as
well. Your resistance increases the flow of energy through the arms and often opens up
blocked feelings. Again, simply observe what happens and offer feedback on what you
observe.
GRIEF WORK

Unshed grief restricts the breath, and deepening the breath often releases grief. Grief is
like heavy clouds in the air that obscure the sky, but once the rain is shed the sky opens
up to let the sun shine again.

Grief is nearly always based on loss, especially of loved ones. It is important to reclaim
that part of us that was attached to what we lost. The grown woman who lost her
daddy when she was a little girl may have simultaneously lost her inner child. The
nurturing husband who lost his wife may lose the part of himself that was tender and
open. The self that feels playful, sexual, creative, or enthusiastic about life may have
been lost when the lover that brought out these qualities moves on. We can tolerate the
loss of a love object, but not the loss of vital pieces of ourselves.
It is important to remember that the point of grief work is to regain connection with the
self inside rather than increase our attachment to what was lost. We must remember to
ask ourselves, "Why was this person in particular so special to me?" "What did he or
she bring to me that I am missing in myself?" "What part of me was particularly bonded
to this person, and what does that part need?" "What have I lost touch with in myself as
a result of this ending, and how can I nurture and regain that part of myself once
again?"

We grieve because a sacred essence within ourselves has been awakened and then
compromised. To grieve that essence is to reclaim it and give it the importance it
deserves. Sometimes a painful situation triggers wounds from previous hurts that were
never healed and indeed we may we feel like we are reexperiencing every hurt that has
ever happened to us. Grief work helps us clean the wounds so that we reclaim our
wholeness.

As we shed the seemingly endless tears of grief, we must remember the hope of the
young boy in the stable: "With this much manure, there's got to be a pony in here
somewhere!" Grief work leads us to the pony.
FORGIVENESS

When our heart is injured, we protect it from the one we believe has caused it harm.
Often we blame him or her for the pain, forgetting the part we may have played in it
ourselves. Blame acts as a barricade that protects us from opening to that person
again. Unfortunately, when we barricade our heart we also barricade it against
receiving, as well as the possibility of healing. We stay frozen in the past, unable to
move forward into the future.

Likewise, when we blame ourselves for something we regret, we stay locked into that
past event. We remain fixated in the state of the helpless child, the out-of-control adult,
or the withdrawn lover, stuck in a pattern of shame that does not allow us to be fully
present.

Forgiveness is said to be the ultimate step in healing. Forgiveness uses the compassion
of the heart to understand situations in terms of the forces that were acting on both
ourselves and others. We may still vehemently disagree with the actions taken. We

may say, rightfully, that we would never have done such a thing. We may even need
something from the other person in order to allow forgiveness — an apology, some kind
of restitution, or an acknowledgment of harm. But in the end, forgiveness allows the
heart to lighten and move on; it is the redemptive action of the heart.
The first step is to forgive ourselves. This is not to say we should blindly condone every
thoughtless action we have ever taken. We need to look at ourselves compassionately,
seeing the yearnings of the soul and what it was trying to accomplish, seeing the
obstacles that were in our way, and the forces that impinged upon our journey at that
time. It means that we understand why we did what we did and separate our basic
essence from the mistake that was made.

Forgiving ourselves may require making amends for past action. This is an important
step in recovery from addictions, for it restores balance and returns us to a position of
conscious responsibility.

Look over your life and make a list of the things for which you have not forgiven
yourself. Go back over each one of them and recreate the scenario that led to your
actions. See if you can identify what part of you was activated at the time — the hungry
child, the overworked adult, the rejected wife, the desperate teenager. Work toward an
understanding of what you did and allow yourself to connect with the feelings you may
not have been able to acknowledge at the time. Imagine how you might react if you saw
another child (wife, husband, daughter, etc.) do the same thing and knew all about their
situation. Would you be more or less judgmental? What is the expectation you had of
yourself at the time? What was the expectation that was held of you by others? Were
these expectations realistic?

Treat the part of you that was activated in your mind's eye with compassion. Look at
what it needed, what it was trying to find. See if you can offer it forgiveness. Try to say
these words to yourself, "I forgive you. You were just trying to.... Maybe we can help
you achieve that now in a more productive way."

Forgiving others for harm they have caused is often more difficult. Some people try to
forgive immediately before working through the grief and anger they have sustained.
They say, "Oh, it doesn't matter. That's just how my father was. He couldn't help that
he was so angry." This might be true, but it minimizes the impact such actions have on
the soul and the effort it takes to stop the patterns it created in our lives.
Once we work through our feelings about a situation and reclaim pieces that were lost,
then forgiveness lets us move onward. Forgiveness is an organic process and cannot
be forced against its own time, although it can be encouraged.

We follow the same steps in forgiving someone else as we do for ourselves. We ask,
what were the forces acting on the person at the time? What were they trying to
achieve? What was driving them? What was unavailable that they needed? What
blocked them from being able to respond differently? What might have been their true
intentions had they been more conscious? What do I need from this person to help the
forgiveness process (if it is possible)? What do I need from myself in order to forgive
them and move on?

Forgiveness softens the hardening of the heart and so renews openness. It is not meant
as a process that allows the same thing to happen again, but it will allow greater
awareness to evolve in situations that have gone awry. It allows us to unhook the
energy from the negative past and free it up for a more positive future.
Love Must Be Willed and Created, as Well as Felt

We tend to think of love as a feeling of which we are passive recipients. When love
ebbs and flows, as surely it will, we think we are helpless to do anything about it.
Stephen R. Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, shares
advice he gave to a man who felt he no longer loved his wife nor was loved in return.
"Love her," he told the man.

"I told you, the feeling just isn't there anymore," the man replied.
"Love her," Covey replied.

"You don't understand. The feeling of love just isn't there," repeated the man.
"Then love her. If the feeling isn't there, that's a good reason to love her."
"But how do you love when you do not love?" asked the man.

Covey replied: "My friend, love is a verb. Love — the feeling — is a fruit of love, the verb.
So love her. Serve her. Sacrifice. Listen to her. Empathize. Appreciate. Affirm her. Are
you willing to do that?"10

Love is a feeling, yes, but a feeling that is created out of action. The fourth chakra sits
neatly above the third chakra will. Love is a daily, even hourly, conscious commitment to
behave in a loving and caring fashion toward ourselves and others. When the feeling
fades, it is our responsibility to find ways to create new love. Like a garden that is
carefully tended, the rewards are well worth the effort.

For those of us who are unsure about what love even looks like, it is helpful to use
fantasy. In fantasy, we can imagine our ideal mom or dad, or our ideal lover. We can
imagine how they would speak to us, what they would do for us. In the fantasy, it is
important to let the feelings fully permeate the body. As I say to my clients: "Soak your
cells in this feeling. Reprogram the body with this nourishment." It is often helpful to
begin this fantasy imagining ourselves at a young age and gradually growing up with
this feeling present. How would it have felt at three years old to have had this kind of
support and love? How would it have felt to go to school if you had had this kind of
love? How would it have felt going through puberty? Would you walk, talk, or reach out
differently? What would college have been like? How would your marriage or your
relationship to your children be different? Fantasy helps reprogram the chakra through a
succession of developmental stages.
Love Must Rise beyond the Self

The purpose of the fourth chakra in the system as a whole is to get us to expand
beyond our limited egos into a wider sense of connection with all life. This is the
movement of the liberating current. While it is important not to deny or neglect the
smaller self, it is indeed a liberating experience to rise beyond the confines of our own
needs and find joy in service and altruism.

In my workshops, we give our students an assignment in the heart chakra to do
something unexpected, even outrageous, for another person. It may be a favor for a
neighbor you rarely speak to or a house cleaning for your wife in the middle of the night.
It may be giving one hundred dollars to a panhandler or taking two days off work to
spend exclusively with your children.

The joy this action imparts is contagious. Not only do you get uplifted yourself, but the

person who receives your generosity will be touched in the heart, and inspired to carry it

on elsewhere. How will they treat others after you make their day?

For those who consider themselves hopelessly codependent, this act of selfless service

may only reinforce what they are already doing. For them, we give an even harder

assignment: Do something outrageous for yourself!

Love Must Maintain a Balance of Energies

We think the heart chakra should be wide open, but in reality, few people can tolerate
such a state in our crowded and traumatized social milieu. If we cannot monitor our
boundaries, the heart will unconsciously shut down. The inner self will not feel protected
and will simply withdraw.

Many people have difficulty balancing intimacy and autonomy in a relationship. They try
to favor one side over the other and fail to realize they need both. The following
exercise is similar to that of reaching out and taking in, but awakens the active rather
than passive aspects of love.

COME CLOSER, QO AWAY

Seat yourself in front of your partner either cross-legged or in a chair. Let your hands

meet between you at heart level. Allow your partner to pull your hands in toward his
heart while he says aloud, "Come closer." Offer some resistance to the pull — not
enough to block the movement, but enough to require real effort. When the hands reach
the heart, allow your partner to push your hands back away from his body, saying aloud,
"Go away." Again, offer some resistance to the push.

Go back and forth between these two modes, allowing any feelings or resistances to
arise. Often one or the other movement will dominate and the person will realize they
actually want more closeness or distance. You can then support them in their feeling by
focusing on that movement.

Then change places. Now it is your turn to push and pull, and your partner's turn to offer
resistance and feedback.

If you do this with someone with whom you have a relationship, ask how it mirrors what
happens between the two of you. Who does the pushing, pulling, and resisting? What
effect does it have? Is it balanced?

CONCLUSION

The heart chakra brings us to a place of acceptance and openness that allows the
spirit inside to be still and find peace and stability without constriction. If the third chakra
below has done its work correctly, we have created a place where the fourth chakra can
now let go and just be. The state of being as opposed to doing is the qualitative
difference between chakras four and three.

Healing the heart involves attending to the most vulnerable and sacred aspects within
ourselves. Only through attending to their truth can we drop the protective armor that
keeps us bound to the ego, bound to smaller parts of ourselves. Manipulation, derision,
criticisms, or command will not work. We can only melt the armor with the combination
of feeling and understanding that is love.

Through love we are able to expose our instinctual core and evolve to the next step of
expressing our truth. Through love we are able to embrace and heal the larger world
around us. Relationship furthers the evolution of individual souls and the collective soul
of our planet.

CHAKRA FIVE

Vibrating into Expression

FIFTH CHAKRA AT A GLANCE

ELEMENT

Sound
NAME

Vissudha (purification)

PURPOSE

Communication

Creativity

ISSUES

Communication

Creativity

Listening

Resonance

Finding one's own voice

COLOR

Bright blue

LOCATION

Throat, pharyngeal plexus

IDENTITY

Creative

ORIENTATION

Self-expression

DEMON

Lies

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE

7 to 1 2 years

DEVELOPMENTAL TASK

Creative expression

Communication skills

Symbolic thinking

BASIC RIGHTS

To speak and be heard

BALANCED CHARACTERISTICS

Resonant voice

Good listener

Good sense of timing and rhythm
Clear communication
Lives creatively

TRAUMAS AND ABUSES

Lies, mixed messages
Verbal abuse, constant yelling
Excessive criticism (blocks creativity)
Secrets (threats for telling)
Authoritarian parents (don't talk back)

Alcoholic, chemical-dependent family (don't talk, don't trust, don't feel)

DEFICIENCY

Fear of speaking

Small, weak voice

Difficulty putting feelings into words

Introversion, shyness

Tone deaf

Poor rhythm

EXCESS

Too much talking, talking as a defense
Inability to listen, poor auditory comprehension
Gossiping

Dominating voice, interruptions
PHYSICAL MALFUNCTIONS

Disorders of the throat, ears, voice, neck
Tightness of the jaw

Toxicity (due to the chakra's name, which means "purification")

HEALING PRACTICES

Loosen neck and shoulders

Release voice

Singing, chanting, toning

Storytelling

Journal writing

Automatic writing

Practice silence (excess)

Non-goal-oriented creativity

Psychotherapy

Learn communication skills

Complete communications

Letter writing

Inner child communication

Voice dialog
AFFIRMATIONS
I hear and speak the truth.
I express myself with clear intent.
Creativity flows in and through me.
My voice is necessary.

.SHADES

-QE-BLUE

1 remember an astonishing film shown in my college physics class. It featured the

Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge, built in 1940, nicknamed the "Galloping Gertie."
Only four months after completion, a remarkable and unfortunate event took place. One
ordinary afternoon as a single car innocently drove across the bridge, a stiff breeze of
about forty miles per hour came up. As the wind blew, it triggered subtle vibrations in
the bridge, which coalesced into increasingly larger vibrations until the whole bridge
started undulating like a snake. Within minutes the entire bridge collapsed in one huge,
oscillating ripple, crumbling into the waters below.

If such an enormous structure as a steel and concrete suspension bridge can be
destroyed by vibration from the wind, how are we impacted by the countless vibrations
we encounter each day? Our modern world bombards us with dissonance — vibrations
that we tune out of our conscious mind while our body and nervous system continue to
endure. The result is a series of little stresses that can add up to larger stress with the
potential to break down our entire system. What are some of these vibrations and how

do they impact us?

Years ago I moved from a major city to a quiet rural area. I still remember the many
auditory insults that I use to endure daily, sounds that are a normal part of urban life.
There was the background drone of the nearby freeway, a constant hum periodically
penetrated by blasting horns. Our house was close to the road. Cars on the street sped
by, often laying rubber with a characteristic screech or blasting their stereo for all to
hear. Blaring sirens sounded hourly, and in the evening they would often set off the
entire neighborhood of barking dogs. Like many cities, the sounds of gunshots rang
through the night air, reminding me of the lack of safety outside. Car alarms left
unattended often pierced the night, just as I drifted off to sleep. Sleep was equally
disturbed in the morning as the neighboring apartment building had a parking lot next to
our house. Each morning, from precisely 5:40 to 5:50 a.m., one of the men would warm
up the engine of his old car which had no muffler. The same apartment building had
outdoor hallways and balconies from which one could hear violent arguments, kids
fighting, babies crying, or, on a good day, someone else's taste in music.
As if that were not enough, we had three active teenagers living at home, and my
younger son, Alex. The phone rang constantly, feet thundered up and down the stairs,
and it was a rare moment when neither the stereo nor the television were on. Such
household noise was frequently punctuated by the angry yelling of sibling rivalry and, on
occasion, the jolting shatter of something breaking.
Unfortunately, my story is not unique.

Anyone who lives in a modern urban environment is assaulted by sound on a constant
basis. Only recently in the span of human evolution are we as polluted by unwelcome
sound as we are today. Two hundred years ago, in the city of Vienna, fire alarms could
be given verbally by someone shouting from the top of a cathedral. In 1964, a siren
needed to be 88 decibels to be heard (1 decibel or dBA is the smallest unit heard by
human ears). Today a siren is 122 dBA, well over the threshold of pain. While we talk
about air, water, and earth pollution, we pay little attention to sound pollution. Unable to
close our ears, this is a pollution against which we have very little defense.
OSHA estimates that more than half of American production workers are exposed to an
ongoing noise level of 80 dBA or higher, while the maximum intensity one can withstand
over time without hearing loss is 75 dBA. When exposed to recorded industrial sound,
rhesus monkeys had a 27 percent rise in blood pressure, which stayed elevated for
four months after the noise stopped. Children living near airports are more likely than
others to have learning disabilities. Babies living in noisy homes proved slower to
mature in terms of sensory and motor skills and tended to keep their infantile habits
longer than babies in a quieter environment.1

It is not just raw sound that bombards us — we also experience dissonance in mass
communication. Hungry for truth, we find ourselves surrounded by the junk sound of
advertising mantras that "pepsi" our thoughts, news broadcasts that obsess on violence
and death, and sensationalist stories designed to fill the already agitated mind.
Suppressing the urge to express ourselves truthfully, we restrict ourselves to accepted
niceties, and speak the "real" truth only behind others' backs. The throat chakras of men
are bound by neckties, which choke their individuality, while women are just beginning
to break through centuries of public silence.

As my friend Wendy Hunter Roberts has pointed out, our news coverage brings us
information without experience. News reporters rattle off deplorable facts with very little
feeling. We hear about the destruction of the environment in terms of square miles of
rain forest, inches of topsoil, numbers of disappearing species, but these statistics do
not tell us what it is like to stand in a rain forest and hear the trees fall, or to watch the
death of a life-form that will never exist again. We read about calamities in foreign
countries in terms of so many dead, so many injured, and so many dollars worth of

damage. We coldly take in data without having the time or the context in which to really
feel its impact. We are receiving disembodied communication.

Meanwhile, mass communication is proliferating. Modern communication technologies
give us faster access to more information than ever before. Movies, videos, radio,
books, magazines, newspapers, the Internet, cellular phones, bumper stickers, and
even T-shirts — the cultural fifth chakra is an omnipresent field, influencing our
consciousness at each and every moment. How can we hear our own unique vibration
in a world deafened by the roars of civilization? How can we express our truth when it
goes against the accepted conformity of polite conversation? In the subtle realm of the
fifth chakra, how can we find the quiet necessary to listen to the truth within?
These are the issues to explore in the fifth chakra. Communication binds culture
together as the primary means for sharing information, values, relationships, and
behavior. Through communication we shape our future.

UNFOLDING THE PETALS

Basic Issues of the Fifth Chakra
Symbolic Thinking
Resonance
Etheric Body
Communication

The Voice
Truth and Lies
Creativity

The Subtle World of Vibrations ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
All sounds known through the Sanskrit alphabet are identified as the vocables sprung
from the cosmic drum of Shiva, i.e., of creation itsc
id its dissolution is reabsorption into its source.

As we enter the etheric level of the throat chakra, we enter a paradoxical realm of great
subtlety yet powerful influence. We leave behind the balanced middle ground of the
green ray and reach into the etheric range of turquoise and blue that resonate with the
throat chakra. The enveloping element of air still surrounds us, yet we reach beyond it
into the unknown ether — the realm of vibrations, sound, communication, and creativity.
We have passed the halfway point in our rainbow. In the dance between liberation and
manifestation, we are now leaving the balance of the heart to focus more heavily on the
upper chakras. We are breaking free from gravity, free from the way things have always
been and from the structure and restriction of manifested form. We become more
abstract, yet broader in our scope. In the first four chakras we concerned ourselves
with form, movement, activity, and relationship — things that are easily observed. In
chakra five, our attention moves to vibrations as the subtle, rhythmic pulsations that
move through all things.

EWTEWNQTHE SYMBOLIC

The symbol strikes its roots in the most secret depths of the soul; language skims over
the surface of the understanding like a soft breeze.... Words make the infinite finite;
symbols carry the mind beyond the finite world of becoming into the realm of infinite

J. J. BACHOFEN

The upper chakras represent the symbolic world of the mind. Words, images, and
thoughts (chakras five, six, and seven) are all symbolic reflections of the manifested
plane. Each word we use is a symbol for a thing, concept, feeling, process, or
relationship. Each image in our mind is a mental symbol for something real and each
thought is a combination of these symbols. With symbols, we can do more with less. I
can talk about a truck even though I cannot lift one. I can describe a spiral galaxy, even
though I cannot travel to one. I can show you a picture of a man easier than I can
describe him.

Symbols can be seen as the vibrational essence of what they represent. They are the
building blocks of communication and consciousness. They are like packets of meaning
that can be stored in one mind and shared with others, each packet enhancing
consciousness. When a symbol really speaks to us then we are said to resonate with it.
Resonance

All life is rhythmic. From the rise and fall of the sun to the rise and fall of our breath,
from the beating of our heart to the infinite vibrations of atomic particles within our cells,
we are a mass of vibrations that miraculously resonate together as a single system. In
fact, our ability to function as a unified whole depends upon the coherent resonance of
the many subtle vibrations within us. The task of the fifth chakra is to enhance this
resonance.

Resonance is a state of synchronization among vibrational patterns. All vibrations can
be thought of as wavelike movements through space and time. Each waveform has a
characteristic rhythm (known as frequency) that describes how frequently the waves
rise and fall. In music, the pitch of a note can be expressed as a certain
frequency — higher notes have a higher frequency than lower ones.
We are a resonating system in process rather than a stable, solid mass.

RANDALL McCLELLAN

When two or more sounds from different sources vibrate at the same frequency, they
are said to resonate together. This means their waveforms oscillate back and forth at
the same rhythm (see lines A and B in figure 5.1). When this happens, the height of the
waves is added together (expanding the amplitude, line C) and the waves lock into
phase with each other. Once in phase, they tend to remain that way. Oscillating
waveforms tend to stabilize when they enter into resonance (much like members of a
political movement reinforce each other's political views) because they are on the same
wavelength. It is easier, for example, to sing the same note as another than to sing a
different one, as we quickly discover when we try to sing harmony. Thus resonant
frequencies tend to bond together. This is also known as rhythm entrainment or
sympathetic vibration.

a + b = c

Sound waves A and B vibrate at the same frequency.

When added together, the frequency stays the same while the amplitude is doubted.

This maintains the same pitth but gives us increased volume.

Figure 5.1. Example of Sine Waves in Resonance
We experience resonating wave forms in many ways. When we listen to a chorus of
voices or a troupe of drummers, we are immersed in a field of resonance that vibrates
every cell in our body. Such a field influences the subtler vibrations of consciousness
and we feel pleasure, expansiveness, and rhythmic connection with the pulse of life
itself. We enter even deeper resonance when we dance or move rhythmically to music.
The rhythmic movements of the body stay in phase with the music and it actually
becomes difficult to move out of phase.

The rhythmic entrainment of various frequencies within our body and consciousness
forms a coherent, central vibration that we experience as a kind of resonant "hum" when
we're having a good day. On those days, it seems we're in harmony with everything, as
if we can't miss a beat. We're in sync with the rhythm of the universe. (It is interesting to
note how much the fourth chakra state of being in love contributes to this experience.)
On other days, we feel like we're out of phase or as if we can't do anything right. Then
we feel out of sorts, uncomfortable in our own skin, and others may find us
uncomfortable to be around. Understanding the principles of vibration and resonance
helps us increase the coherence of our basic vibrational experience and realign our
basic rhythm.

Resonance requires a certain balance of flexibility and tension. A string needs to be
both taut and flexible in order to sound a note. In our bodies, we need to have enough
flexibility to resonate with different frequencies, yet maintain enough tension to create a
repeating pattern.

Human egos are multi-concentric halo-systems.

BUCKMINSTER FULLER

The state of resonance within the mind-body is a statement of our health and vitality.
When we can't resonate with the world around us, we can't link with it. We are unable to
expand, respond, or receive. We become isolated and ill. Opening to resonance
requires both grounding for the establishment of form, and an openness of breath that
yields softness and flexibility. This balance is a delicious combination of letting and

willing that allows us to both listen and respond at the same time.

Of what is the body made? It is made of emptiness and rhythm. At the ultimate heart of

the body, at the heart of the world, there is no solidity. Once again, there is only the

dance.

GEORGE LEONARD

It is my belief that sleep puts us back in harmony with our own resonance. When we
sleep, our heart rate, breathing, and brain waves all settle into a deep, rhythmic
entrainment. A discontinuous sound or sensation will wake us up — an alarm clock,
someone shaking us, a noise on the street — and pull us out of a deep resonant state. At
the end of the day, when we have experienced a lot of distracting vibrations, we feel
tired. We want to go back to sleep.
Tic EncRio Body

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who claim to have found it.
At the level of the fifth chakra, our attention moves from the physical plane into the
subtler etheric fields. Commonly known as the aura, this etheric field is generated by the
totality of internal processes — from the energetic exchange of subatomic particles to the
digestion of food in our cells, from the firing of neurons to our current emotional state,
and on to the larger rhythms of our outer activities.

Our very life force can be seen as a stream of pulsating energy. When the stream is not
fragmented by blocks in the body armor, then pulsation moves freely through the body
and out into the world. This streaming creates a resonant, etheric field around the
body — an aura of wholeness. A resonant field makes coherent connections with the
outside world. A fragmented field makes fragmented connections.
As we interact with others, our etheric fields become engaged. The most rewarding
connections occur when there is resonance between vibrational fields. Just as people
who speak the same language resonate with spoken symbols, the subtle resonance
between our etheric field and those of others deepens our feeling of connection. The
greater our internal resonance, the more deeply we can resonate with those around us.
Kirlian photography, which allows us to see the activity of the etheric field, has revealed
remarkable things about the etheric body. For example, Kirlian photographs of a cut leaf
show that the etheric body of the leaf remains nearly the same even when parts of the
physical leaf have been removed. 2 Yet, when a human couple merely change their
thoughts toward one another, sequential Kirlian photographs reveal that their auras
change dramatically. When one couple's thoughts turned from hostile to loving, the
fields around their fingertips (which were not touching on the film) fused together where
they had previously remained separate.3 This tells us that the etheric body may be
more responsive to the subtle vibrations of our thoughts than it is to major alterations in
the physical body!

To be a warrior is to learn to be genuine in every moment of your life.

CHOGYAM TRUNGPA

Our etheric body is highly sensitive to emanations around us, even without our
awareness. In the fifth chakra, we work to refine our vibrations so that we can tune into
this subtlety. The name for this chakra, vissudha, means "purification." Purification is a
vibrational refinement that takes place as we rid the body of toxins, speak truthfully and
authentically, and as we work through the issues of the lower chakras. Purification
prepares us to enter the even more refined energies of the chakras above.
Communication

Communication is the essential function of the fifth chakra. As self-expression, it is a
gateway between the inner world and the outer. Only through self-expression does the
outer world get to know what's inside of us. We only know what's inside someone when
they choose to tell us.

Self-expression in the fifth chakra is a counterpart to the sensate reception coming in

through the second chakra. In the second chakra, we opened a gate that allowed the
world in through our senses. In the fifth chakra, we open a gate that allows our inner
self to get out into the world. These two chakras are often linked, such that problems in
one will often be reflected in the other.

The throat chakra is also the internal gateway between mind and body. The narrowest
passage within the whole chakra system, the throat is literally a bottleneck for the
passage of energy. We can think of it as a kind of relay system, sorting through
messages from the body and connecting them with information stored in the brain. Only
when mind and body are connected do we have true resonance.
It is also through this inner gateway that the unconscious becomes conscious. If the
throat is blocked, so is the upward movement of energy, which cannot pass into the
conscious mind. We have impulses without strategy, whim without will. We cannot get
to our higher self. If instead we live up in our head with a throat chakra block, then we
cannot speak what we know. We cannot translate knowledge into feeling or action, and
therefore cannot manifest.

When mind and body are not congruent, then there is a tendency to throw the head out
of alignment with the body. The head may move forward with an angle at the neck, or
there may be a tendency to injure the neck through accidents or build up muscle tension
through stress.

Such was the case with Sarah, who complained of neck problems. Sarah grew up in a
violent alcoholic family, where she was required to keep her head in order to survive
frightening and crazy situations. As a result, her head was painfully out of alignment
with her torso and she felt out of touch with her body. In one of our sessions we let each
part of her body speak its experience, and all the parts below her neck talked about
being tense or in pain. Her head and face, on the other hand, stated that they felt just
fine! When I asked her to speak as if she were her neck, she said: "I'm crooked and I'm
tight. I'm tilted. I relay things through the body. I feel sad. I'm not even comfortable. I'm
not aware, except for a lump in the front of me." The lump in her throat was the place
where communication between her mind and body stopped. If her head were to
reconnect and access this knowledge, it would become aware of the pain in her body.
This awareness could only take place when it became possible to actually do something
about the pain and the situation that caused it. When she was a child, there was nothing
she could do. In order to minimize the negative experiences, she put her head out of
alignment with her own body, distorting the communication between them.
The neck is a crucial point in the mind-body connection. The body functions largely by
habits, unconsciously. The mind wants to understand and transcend. Only through a
full, solid connection between mind and body, meeting at the neck, do we have the
ability to break old habits, bring our physical experience to understanding, and take that
vital combination into the world around us.
The voice is a vehicle which the mi
impregnat
The Voice

The voice is a living expression of one's basic vibration. Since the fifth chakra is
associated with the element sound and is located in the throat — the voice becomes the
touchstone for the health of this chakra. If the chakra is constricted, the voice will also
be constricted, sounding whiny, whispered, or mumbled. If the chakra is excessive, the
voice may be loud, shrill, or the person may habitually interrupt or dominate
conversation.

The sign of a healthy fifth chakra — one that is connected to both mind and body — is a
resonant and rhythmic voice that speaks truthfully, clearly, and concisely. Conversation
with others is balanced, with a true ability to listen and respond.

The voice not only indicates the health of the fifth chakra, but of other chakras as well.

Contraction in the body (chakra one) restricts the voice. Lack of feeling (chakra two)
makes the voice seem mechanical. Too little will (chakra three) makes the voice sound
pinched and whiny, whereas third chakra excess makes the voice dominating. The
voice also requires breath (chakra four). If the breath is constricted or uneven, the voice
will not be full. If our consciousness is not open (chakras six and seven), then the voice
becomes repetitive and dull. When we listen to such a voice, we have the feeling that
we have heard it all before. When a person is frozen in the past, the voice does not
seem fully present.

There are also many voices within us. There is the voice that tells us we are no good,
the voice that wants above all to be heard, the voice that only whispers silently in the
quiet moments we spend alone. Inner dialog between the various parts of ourselves
helps us become more integrated. Integration creates resonance. The process of
individuation honors and integrates each of our voices, and brings them together as a
whole.

Only with freedom to express ourselves can we fully individuate. If the fifth chakra is
blocked, we become excessively introverted and can neither express nor take in new
information. If the block is severe enough, it negatively affects the whole system.
Truth and Lies

To fully express our individuality is to express our truth. A nonindividuated person will
express what people want to hear. A fearful person will be afraid to speak their truth. A
person without ego strength will be afraid of what others think and give up their
authenticity.

If your lower chakras are in good order — living in the truth of their bodies and feelings,

with ego strength and accepting love — you can safely express your own personal truth.

Let's look at the importance each of the lower chakras plays in this process.

If the fourth chakra brings self-acceptance, you no longer need to deny truth. This

acceptance is a container that allows you to flower into creativity. Living in the field of

acceptance with unconditional love and open-mindedness, your truths and individuality

can emerge. You need not deny your feelings or pretend to be different.

If the ego and will are strong, you are able to express your truth even in the face of

opposition. You have the courage to be different, the warrior spirit to defend your truth,

even if it opposes what is around you .

The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.

ARISTOTLE

If feelings are denied, we may find we have various conflicting truths. You want to move
forward and you want to resist. You feel attracted to someone and do not trust them. To
live in truth is to be able to live in these contradictions — to accept that each piece can
be true without negating the other. To force yourself to pick one side or the other may
deny a truth. Resolution of inner conflict can only come by acknowledging even
conflicting truths.

Truth can be seen as a resonant field. Negative experiences teach us to deny and
withhold our truth. We are punished for disagreeing with our parents. We are teased for
admitting that we are afraid. We are misunderstood when we try to express ourselves.
If our views are not consistent with the majority, we can be ostracized. Sometimes, our
safety and psychic survival become dependent on restricting the truth. The child who
gets hit for opening her mouth quickly learns to keep it shut. Unfortunately, this exacts a
price. In repressing part of our truth, we restrict the natural resonance of the etheric
field, and cease to resonate with the other parts of our truth. When we are out of our
truth, we are living a lie. Lies form the demon of the fifth chakra.
Lies can be told with words, but they can also be told with actions or held by the body.
When I am afraid to show someone how excited I am, I restrict the muscles of my face
or hold my arms down by my side. I am then lying with my body and out of resonance

with my own field. My natural process gets frozen. As long as we're frozen in this way,
we are arrested in time. We can't fully participate in the streaming of the universe. We're
not even in resonance with our own being.

When we live in our truth, there is a resonant continuity between ourselves and others.
When this resonance is interrupted, we experience discontinuity. Perpetual discontinuity
breaks down our health. Just as an engine needs all of its vibrating parts to be
coordinated smoothly, so too does our basic resonance. This allows the forward
progression of the self to occur gracefully.

Now that we are more distant from the established forms and patterns of the lower
chakras, we not only have greater freedom to be creative, but a greater need as well.
Having broken free of established patterns, we must live creatively.
To fully live our truth as individuated beings is to live life as a creative act.
Communication is the creative expression of all that is within us. Situated halfway
between the third chakra of will and the seventh chakra of abstract consciousness,
creativity combines will and consciousness and moves us forward into the future. When
we create, we make something that has not existed before.

Some people think of the second chakra as the center of creativity, as this is the center
from which we create new life, but creativity at the second chakra level is unconscious.
The creation of a child within my womb occurs on a day-to-day basis without my
conscious control. I do not decide to create fingers and toes, blue eyes or brown. It
happens by itself.

Creativity in the fifth chakra is a consciously willed process. We are literally making our
world at each and every moment through our actions, expression, and communication.
If I tell someone that I want them to come closer, I am creating intimacy in my life. If I tell
them to go away, I am creating solitude, or maybe even alienation. Whether I tell you to
pick up eggs and milk at the store or share an idea brewing in my mind, I am engaged
in a creative process that is constantly shaping my reality.

Creativity is a pure expression of the spirit within us, the natural process of Self as it
individuates. It allows the Self to give back to the world an assimilated form of what it
has taken in. Creativity is the gateway between the past and future.

Developmental Formation of the Fifth Chakra at a Glance

AGE
7 to 12
TASKS
Self-expression
Symbolic reasoning
Communication skills
NEEDS AND ISSUES
Industry vs. inferiority
Creativity

Access to tools for learning and creativity
Exposure to larger world

Creativity

GROWING

THE LOTUS

Vibrations, pulsations, and streamings are basic to all human relationships, and to all
concepts of freedom and social concern.... If a child's own streamings are allowed to
develop and intensify, he becomes a living example of the paradox of individuality and
connectedness.

STANLEY KELEMAN

Developmental stages are less clearly defined in the higher chakras. This is especially
true of the development of communication. We begin receiving vibrational and chemical
communication from our mothers in the womb. As infants, we are immersed in a field of
language and react to noises, voice tone, and facial expression. At nine months, we
realize that sounds represent real things and begin imitating sounds around us. By
twelve months, we can speak a few words, respond to simple words like no, or
recognize our name. By two years we can express ourselves in simple sentences, with
a vocabulary of about three hundred words. By four or five years, there is an explosion
of language and the child talks constantly to anybody who will listen!
At six years old, a child has a general command of her language. She understands
words that represent abstract concepts and phrases that describe relationships between
things. Back in the third chakra, we saw how the development of language gave us our
first experience of time as a sequence of cause and effect. Not until age seven,
however, does the child really understand time in the larger sense, such as how many
weeks or months until Christmas or her birthday. A seven-year-old can now look
backward or forward in time, a process Piaget called reversibility. This stage marks
the point where the intellect is able to separate itself from the immediate experience
long enough to consider alternate realities. Only with this realization is conscious
creativity really possible.

Here also lies the seed of conscience. The child can conceptualize what it might be like
if everyone told lies or stole from each other. In the third chakra stage, this was not
possible as the level of conceptual thinking had not developed enough to see beyond
immediate cause and effect. In the fourth chakra stage, a child wants to be helpful
because helpfulness seems like a positive trait. During the fifth chakra stage, moral
behavior has social as well as personal consequences.

It is between the ages of seven and twelve (Piaget's period of concrete operations) that
the fifth chakra flowers. This stage is marked by more sophisticated symbolic
reasoning — the ability to create a mental representation of a series of actions. A five-
year-old can learn to walk a simple route from home to school, but would be unable to
draw the route on paper. A concrete operational child can make this transition to
symbolic representation and can reason in her head. I used to make a frequent three-
hour drive that my son found long and boring. When he was four, he said to me,
"Mommy, if it takes so long to get there, why don't we take a different road that will take
us there right away?" When he was eight, I reminded him of that comment and he
laughed at how silly he had been.

There is a shift in the child's consciousness away from the relationship-dominated fourth
chakra toward a point where her social identity is fairly well formed and she begins to
experiment with her own creative expression. Erikson identifies this stage as the
struggle between industry and inferiority, where the child "now learns to win recognition
by producing things. "4 The school environment begins to replace the family as the main
focus of activity as it has a wider vista and greater opportunities for creative expression.
In school we find all kinds of tools, such as art supplies, books, sports equipment,
audiovisual equipment, and computers. Tools give us a means of acting on the world,
allowing us to do more with less. Each tool we encounter opens a wider possibility of
creative expression.

If the child feels secure in her relationships, then she is more likely to feel secure

enough to speak her truth and experiment creatively. She can test her ideas from a
place of reasoning and imagination. She can say she would like to do something before
she actually does it. She might suddenly announce that she is going to marry the boy
next door when she grows up. When asked how she knows this, she may describe
some rather creative deductive reasoning.

Up until now, the child has been more involved in receiving and reacting than in actual
creative contribution. The system is maturing — physical growth slows down
considerably and basic motor development is in place. Freud calls this the latency
period, a time of relative peace and harmony when sexual drives are at a minimum. The
enormous input of energy that the child has required and hopefully received prior to this
now begins to move outward through creative expression. Susie brings home her
drawings or clay figures and offers them proudly to Mommy and Daddy. It is important
that she gets recognized for her contribution, because ego strength increases when we
feel we have something worthwhile to offer.

With the building blocks of language and relationship in place, mental capacity now
expands exponentially. We learn to use symbols to reach beyond our immediate
experience. Through school, books, television, conversations, and experience, the child
hungrily absorbs information about the world. The conceptual structures that organize
this information are already in place, and learning proceeds rapidly. With more
knowledge to play with, creative possibilities increase.

This is the awakening of the creative identity, whose task is self-expression. It is an
awakening that stems from a realization of ourselves as separate beings, from our
security in our social environment, and from our desire to make a personal contribution
to the world around us. This requires a certain systemic fullness, hopefully gained in the
previous stages of the lower chakras. Without that fullness, the child is still oriented
toward taking in, rather than flowing outward. Our own shape needs to be defined
before we can shape the world. When these stages have been properly fulfilled, or
when the lower chakras have been relatively healed and balanced, this forward
movement of communication and creativity takes place naturally.

TRAUMAS AND ABUSES

If I hit the taut string of a guitar, it makes a sound. If I hit it hard, it makes a loud sound.

If I hit it softly — a quiet sound. Any beginning guitar player knows that if you don't hold
the string down tightly over the frets, the sound is dull instead of resonant. When I
restrict the movement of the string, I also restrict its expression.

ie traumas we suffer in childhood that make us emotionally ill but the inability
ie trauma.

ALICE MILLER

As an event impacts us, it impacts us with a vibration. Like the guitar string, it is our
nature to express what impacts us. When that expression is restricted (by whatever
inhibitions we've been forced to accept), we lose our resonance and no longer vibrate in
the chorus of creation. We become less fully alive, out of step, and dissonant.
If we do not express the vibration, the impact is stored in the body as stress. The natural
flow of vibration through the body is interrupted and energy comes in but does not go
back out. It takes effort to restrict that flow, and causes further stress to maintain the
restriction.

When the throat chakra is blocked, we separate from the chorus of life. We can't block
the ears, eyes, or nerve endings of the skin as thoroughly as we can block the throat, so
it is easier to block expression than it is reception, easier to block what comes out of us
than what comes in. Therefore, a block in the throat chakra is most likely a block in the
discharge of energy, creating a situation in which the input exceeds the output. This
difference is experienced as stress.

If I am impacted by the humming of machinery, the ringing of telephones, the yelling of
someone who is angry, the myriad of unacknowledged vibrations that impinge on me all
day long, and I cannot release this energy, then I become stressed. If I have suffered a
strong negative impact or an intolerable situation and I can't talk about it, these
vibrations become frozen in the core of my body. Frozen at the core, my whole being is
restricted from its natural rhythm of pulsation.

So what blocks us from expressing our truth, our outrage, our creativity, or our needs?
What makes us close down the throat, bottling up the emotions, or annihilate our ideas
before they can make it out of our mouth? What makes us hide behind silence?
Shame at the core, fear for one's safety, or simply being out of touch with the core self
make us unable to bring the inside of ourselves out to meet the world. To keep this from
happening, we block the essential gateway that connects inner to outer and lock the
gate against the possible escape of our true feelings. We protect the vulnerable interior
Self from exposure and possible harm or ridicule. We lock ourselves up, posting a
censor at the door.

We do this by tightening the neck and shoulders, by throwing our head out of alignment
with our body, by talking incessantly about anything except what's really bothering us.
Some do it by stuffing food down their throats, as if filling the mouth will block the
passage and prevent the feelings from pouring out.

Underneath each of these methods is a need to hide. In hiding we keep ourselves in
isolation, keep ourselves from intimacy, and keep ourselves from evolving. In essence,
we keep ourselves from meeting the truth and so we become a closed system that
eventually runs out of energy and settles in inertia. When our block has reached such
proportions that we are locked in inertia, it becomes even harder to get the throat to
open up. Just as it's hard to write a letter to someone when you've been out of touch for
a long time, it's also hard to break silence over issues that have long remained
unspoken, to speak out when we are in the habit of remaining hidden, or to risk
suddenly becoming conspicuous in a crowd. Much of this is kept in place by the
demons of the lower chakras.
Fear

We have a biological instinct to keep quiet when in danger. Along with the freezing
response that immobilizes the body, we instinctually hold our breath as if to keep as
quiet as possible. In this holding, the voice also freezes, for there is no voice without
breath. Think of how common it is for people to have a nightmare and find themselves
trying to scream with no sound coming out!

When someone lives in a chronic state of fear, the throat chakra closes down. Not only
do we fear what might happen if we were to open up, the physiological experience of
fear itself creates a block. We get choked up; we cannot speak even if we want to. We
cannot take a deep breath, the mind races, and we cannot think.
Real communication reveals our interior state. Being on the receiving end of rage,
physical or sexual abuse, excessive criticism, or humiliation as children teaches us to
live in fear of exposing ourselves. We put ourselves in jail in order to keep safe, where
the bars of the jail are our habitual muscular holding patterns. The prison guard is
especially watchful at the throat chakra, for the voice inside secretly wants to come out.
Silence is instilled by a voice louder than our own, which becomes a whisper

permanently etched in the mind.

Someone who was not allowed to be aware of what was being done to them has no
way of telling about it except to repeat it.

Guilt and Shame

Guilt and shame make us want to hide ourselves. Guilt and shame tell us that what is
inside is in some way flawed, and that if we expose ourselves, those flaws will be

conspicuously paraded for all to see. Since the outward expression of communication is
blocked, the energies invested in guilt and shame become internal voices that act as
vicious guardians of the sacred gate between inner and outer worlds. As we internally
rehearse our words, shame rises up as the incessant critic, telling us why no one wants
to hear what we are going to say, how we don't know what we're talking about, or how
stupid we look. Suddenly our throat constricts and we find ourselves choking on our
words with thoughts racing faster and faster, and only a small fraction of them making it
out into expression.

We originally created this critic to save ourselves from real humiliation. Its original job
was to protect the raw and vulnerable self within against outer threats. In most cases,
however, the critic is imbued with all the trapped energy that cannot get out through the
throat — energy that is then fed back to us in a negative way. Such critics are relentlessly
overzealous and unrealistic in the severity of their criticism. Their words become self-
fulfilling prophecies, creating such fear and awkwardness when we try to express
ourselves that they jump back down our throats and say, "See, I was right. You're an
absolute fool, and now everyone knows it."

The voice of the critic is usually a monologue. Whenever I draw forth the critic from one
of my clients, I find that the conversation has only one side. The client is usually startled
to even consider that there might be a second opinion. If I can make the monolog into a
dialog, then another voice can come forward to combat the critic. To facilitate this
dialog, I take on the voice of the critic.

"You don't know enough about gardening to teach a class on it," I taunt.

"Yes, I do! I've worked in gardening for over twenty years, and I have a lot of practical

knowledge. I think my gardens are pretty!"

"But what if you make a mistake? What if you don't know how to do something?" I ask,
knowing the words of the critic only too well.

"I may not know everything, but I know where to look it up. And furthermore, what do

you know? You're just like my dad! You never think I can do anything right!"

Getting a second opinion is always helpful to challenge the critic. Often it is the voice of

the child that never talked back to the original critical parent, and allowing this voice to

emerge can be very liberating.

Secrets

All action is communication. When we keep a secret, we not only have to monitor what
comes out of our mouths, but also what we might say with our body, eyes, or facial
expression. We become vigilant of our own being — separate from it rather than part of
it. We are then separate from the spontaneous, streaming vibration that marks true

aliveness.

Whenever we have to keep a secret, we must block the spontaneous unfolding of our
true expression.

Many children are burdened with having to keep secrets. The sexually abused child who
is threatened into silence about the abuse must live with a lock on her fifth chakra. "I'll
kill you if you ever tell anyone about this," is a phrase far too many abuse survivors
have etched into their souls. This injunction becomes so internalized that feelings of
terror and even suicide may emerge when they do finally speak about the abuse even
decades later.

The little boy who is told never to talk about Daddy's drinking must keep a family secret.
He can't live fully in his truth. Shame in the family that is known inside but can't be
shared outside — shame about money, physical diseases, mental illness, addictions, or
crimes — creates an unspoken rule to never speak about this reality outside the home.
He must then guard against the spontaneous expression of his fifth chakra, being
careful not to talk about things that may bother him most. This can create a lifelong
pattern that is especially damaging to intimate relationships.

Secrets are kept from children as well. I knew someone whose mother died when he
was eight, but who was never allowed to discuss the reasons for her death or explore
his feelings about it. It was simply never mentioned again. Another client had a brother
who had committed suicide, and the family members were forbidden to speak his name.
When family problems can be seen plainly but are not talked about openly, the child
picks up the unstated rule to keep secrets. This makes it impossible for him to ask
questions about the problem and difficult to talk about other dilemmas later in life.
Though spoken language is programmed early in life, the use of communication to solve
problems is modeled throughout childhood, especially during the upper chakra
developmental stages.

Sexuality is another frequently forbidden subject. In a family where sex is never
discussed, the maturing child knows that his or her sexual feelings must be kept
completely hidden. As sexuality and masturbation are natural in a growing child's life,
walls of shame and guilt are built to keep the secret in. This pushes sexuality into the
shadow realms. If a person is not comfortable talking about sexual matters, it increases
the risk of unwanted pregnancies, STDs, undue shyness, shame, and acting-out
behavior.

Secrets promote ignorance. They do not allow a subject to reach the light of
consciousness, where new information can be gained. Secrets block the flow of energy
through the fifth chakra into the upper realms of consciousness, perpetuating repetitive
and compulsive behavior patterns.
Lies and Mixed Messages

Lies form the demon of the fifth chakra. We have already discussed them briefly under
basic issues, but here I wish to speak of the lies we live with while growing up, lies that
scramble the programming in our fifth chakras.

Being told we have no right to feel a certain way when in fact that is how we feel makes
a lie of our basic experience. Hearing the words "I love you" while having the experience
of being abused, neglected, or shamed makes a lie of love. Being asked to apologize
for something we do not feel sorry about, to be nice to someone we clearly dislike, or to
be thankful for something we didn't want are all experiences that teach us to lie. They
teach us to lie to ourselves, to each other, and to our bodies. They create dissonance

within the basic vibration of the self.

The experience of one's own truth ... makes it possible to return to one

Daniel was the victim of his father's rage, which was inflicted on him in the form of cruel
punishment. In order to prove that he was a man, Daniel was forced to endure this
punishment without reaction. If he got angry, screamed, or cried, the punishment would
be worse. Not only was he abused, but he was also denied the honest reaction to his
abuse. He was forced to live a lie. Is it any wonder that he now has a vicious inner critic
that guards the gateway of his throat chakra and regulates everything that might come
out of his mouth?
Yelling and Screaming

Children learn by imitation. An atmosphere of hostility expressed through constant
arguing, yelling, or screaming is an abuse to the fifth chakra. What we hear around us
programs our use of language and teaches us how to communicate.
When the home atmosphere is unpleasant to see or hear, we close down the aural and
visual functions as much as possible. Since it is more difficult to close the ears than it is
to close the eyes, a counter-dialog often occurs inside one's head where we effectively
block off our listening by creating something else instead. While Mom is nagging us
once more about how messy our room is, we are shutting her out by running a different
set of words through our head.

Later in life, we may find it hard to listen to others, to entertain new ideas, to really be
able to hear someone in their truth. We decide we already know what they are going to
say, that we have heard it all before. We have our arguments and defenses ready
before they even open their mouth. Instead of listening when they speak, we are busy
preparing our rebuttal. Thus listening, which is absolutely essential to clear
communication, becomes an impaired function.
Authoritarianism — "Dont Talk Backt

When parents set rules that cannot be questioned, they leave no room for discussion.
Without discussion, there is no practice ground for the child to learn communication
skills. There is no place for the child's truth to be honored and no place to learn
reasoning. They quickly feel devalued as no one wants to listen to them, and

If we are not listened to, we shut down our fifth chakra. We get the message that our
inner truth does not matter, or, in effect, that we do not matter. Is it any wonder that the
inner voice is later drowned out by peers wanting us to do something we know is
dangerous? That we cannot hear the voice of our own limits when the boss asks us to
work overtime, or that we fall victim to the voice of the whining spouse criticizing our
behavior?

A child's inner voice must be searched for and drawn out. It must have a safe place
where it can afford to be uncertain or wrong without meeting ridicule. A child's voice
needs the environment of compassionate exploration to make itself heard. Without this,
they may not even hear themselves.
Neglect

I worked with someone in her forties who said she never had an actual conversation
with her father even though he lived with her throughout her childhood and saw her
periodically throughout adulthood. He had spoken to her during that time but never
with her. He had never asked her anything about her life, wondered what she thought,
or waited for an answer when he spoke to her. It was no surprise that she had poor
communication skills and kept plenty of secrets from her husband, or that she was
inordinately quiet.

Children have questions, feelings, and ideas that need to be communicated with a
caring adult. They need things explained to them, and need their horizons widened
through conversation. Children learn to communicate by being talked with — they learn
to reason, question, think for themselves, trust, and share. Through communication they
have a grounding in reality, a sounding board for their ideas, a means by which to open
up to something larger. This is how they gain new information, learn, and grow.
We learn to communicate by using language, seeing it modeled around us, and seeing
how its power can be used to solve problems. Like learning to use a hammer, it
becomes an invaluable tool for building our lives and for feeling connected, capable,
and confident. To give children the gift of clear communication is to give them a key that
will unlock the majority of impasses and difficulties they will face in the future.

CHARACTER STRUCTURE

The Challenger-Defender

It was awe-inspiring to watch Stella perform. She was the kind of woman who made
heads turn on the street — dark and sultry, with a seductive smile that could make the
sun come out in your heart. Her eyes were compelling, her body lithe and graceful with

wide shoulders, shapely arms, and thin waist and hips. It seemed fitting that she worked
as a model, sang in nightclubs, and had hopes of eventually making it as an actress.
Needless to say, she never lacked for male attention, but her relationships were short-
lived and full of frustration. She was prone to rages, after which she could allow some
closeness with her partner, but she never managed to settle into a place of trust.
Nervousness would follow intimacy, and she could become critical and distant.
Eventually, her partners would tire of bouncing between intimacy and distance and
challenge her. When this happened, she would find some way to make them appear
wrong, abusive, or victimizing, and then discard them. She was prone to exaggeration,
and one might even say that her penchant for acting was a love of melodrama. She did
it well, both on and off stage.

Stella was very powerful in the way she conducted her work, and she was admired by
the people who knew her. Few, if any, realized how fragile and lonely she was
underneath. In fact, she was scarcely aware of it herself, and threw her energy into her
career and into other ways that commanded admiration. She created an outer persona
that was beautiful and powerful, while underneath lurked a poor self-image, vulnerable
and afraid. She had a strong fifth chakra, an excessive will in the third chakra, an open
but disconnected second chakra, and a weak sense of her own ground. Her heart
opened and closed according to the situation — she could be very loving or cold and
angry, often switching between the two with astonishing rapidity. Stella was an example
of the character structure known as the Challenger-Defender (see figure 5.2).
Most character structure is set in the mind-body by the time a child reaches school age.
Since the fifth chakra flowers after that, we can no longer correlate the upper chakra
developmental stages so precisely to the formation of character structure. While the
Challenger-Defender structure comes from deprivation between the ages of two and a
half and four years (later third chakra), I discuss it here in the fifth chakra because of its
tendency to pull energy upward in the body. This generates a strong focus of energy in
the upper chakras, especially the fifth. Challenger-Defenders make great actors,
singers, lawyers, professors, and performers of any kind, as they are highly creative and
brilliant communicators who enjoy positions of power and often handle them well. It is
vulnerability that poses a problem for this structure, and most of their efforts go toward
avoiding it.

Figure 5.2. Psychopathic Structure (Challenger-Defender)
The Betrayed Child

FJflST
CHAKRA

SECOND
CHAKRA

Ehhhiv*

THIRD
CHAKRA

Exctuiv*

FOURTH
CHAKRA

Drfidmt

Usually not
interested in
body, taking
it for granted.
Some, however,
i>cctsnic uotiy
builders as a way
of becoming
powerful

Very loose
pelvis

Very oriented to
power, dominating
yet feels powerless
and victimized

Feats submission
too much to
trust intimacy

Unreliable

Seductive

Hyperactive
followed by
collapse

Views intimacy
as weakness

Paranoid

JNeeay
underneath
defense

Prone to rage

Lan t lorm equal
relationships,

needs to dominate
and control

Self-ccntcrcd

Emotional,
volatile

Fears submission,
so ready for a
fight; must win

Can be close when
needed by someone,
defensive when
challenged

Childhood ncedi
exploited

Thinks any difficulty
is a matter of will

Good champion
of the underdog

Needs to be right

Soft and loving
when they
feel safe

FIFTH

SIXTH

SEVENTH

(*u a K ft A

V* Ti r\ Nn f\

<~H AKR A

txcesuve

Detoent

Balance to excels

Engaging,

May appear to

Highly

entertaining,

be insensitive

intelligent

charismatic

of others* needs

Strong verbally,

Fixates on image

Knowledgable

strong in

instead of reality

arguments

Prone to

Can be monopolanzed

Difficulty

exaggeration

(one right way)

surrendering

to higher power

iJiStnarges tensiyn

Pcflrf i / , i *i l'l\r r*i r i"""k ti
UUvLldll y III LFlJt

r nprtnr hi^lrl riicpri in

X_rlJ.C7Ll'¥ HOu IJIblll LLJ

through talking

to denial

body; strong, large

head and shoulders

Dominates

Ditnculty seeing

through talking

alternatives

May be deceitful

or secretive

A strong fifth chakra is one of the unwittingly seductive aspects of this structure. They
can cajole you with sweetness, impress you with eloquence, command you with the
clarity of their arguments, and stun you with their candor. Their charismatic nature
makes others anxious to please them, and they are comfortable and effective when
occupying positions of power.

Their upwardly displaced energy often creates broad shoulders and narrow hips, and
their physical presence gives a sense of both power and grace. They are not rigid, like
the Achiever type, and in fact their lower chakras (especially the pelvis) may seem
excessively loose and fluid (see this page, Challenger-Defender Character). They can
be highly sexual, but are flighty and lack lasting emotional commitment. They tend to be
energetically exuberant as the lower chakra energy is pushed up through the liberating
current, but poorly grounded as they have too little of the manifesting current pulling
toward focus and form. They are usually attractive, commanding, and confident.
Their power and well-developed communication mask a deeper sense of distrust and
insecurity. Underneath the mask, the Challenger-Defender is more like an Oral — needy,
hungry, and weak. These feelings are so intolerable that the Challenger-Defender goes

to great lengths to avoid any situation that might reveal their hidden, vulnerable nature.
They are well defended against possible challenge, but this defense also perpetuates
their loneliness.

As the defender aspect of the name might imply, persons with this structure are
wonderfully compassionate and supportive when defending the underdog, with whom
they unconsciously relate. They make heroic champions, who will rush to your defense,
fight for important causes, and generously dole out nurturing and understanding to the
weak and needy. Often they find themselves in relationships with people who are
younger, quieter, and emotionally dependent, choosing situations where they are least
likely to be challenged.

When the meek become strong, however, and choose to question this type in any way,
the supportive defender aspect suddenly turns into an attacking challenger. With white-
hot verbal defensiveness, they may launch into sudden bursts of anger and attack
whoever dares to challenge them. If this does not restore their sense of power, they
may become rejecting and unavailable. Intimacy can only be tolerated from a position of
security and advantage. They must be winners at all times, and realistic challenge
cannot be tolerated. They will go to any length to preserve their position of power. It is
vitally important to them to be right.

As a child, the Challenger-Defender had his or her trust broken irrevocably, usually
through seductive manipulation. At a time when she was developing autonomy (third
chakra) but still dependent and needing heart chakra connection, the parent used the
child's vulnerability as a way to manipulate her. In this sense, the child was seduced by
the parent, most often the parent of the opposite sex. This seduction may or may not be
sexual, but it does convince the child to sacrifice her authentic vulnerable self for a more
invincible cover persona.

The child learns that vulnerability is a danger and that seduction and manipulation are
ways to overcome that vulnerability. As a result, deception may become a primary
survival strategy, and Challenger-Defenders may feel perfectly justified in ignoring
accepted ethics and fairness in order to live by their own rules. For this reason, and
because of their penchant for power at all costs, Alexander Lowen named this structure
the Psychopath.

In terms of authority, parents were usually inconsistent — loving and lax at times, while
viciously punitive at others. The underlying result is lack of trust and certainty, which
makes for a weak first chakra. There is openness but danger in the emotional center of
the second chakra, a strong sense of power in the third chakra, very conditional love in
the fourth chakra, and a seemingly capable, but not always honest, fifth chakra.
Chakras six and seven usually reflect their high intelligence and piercing
perceptiveness.

Challenger-Defenders, like all of us, need love, safety, and security. They need to have
a place where their more vulnerable needs can be recognized and met, where they are
loved for their imperfect self rather than their powerful image. They need to be able to
see how they were dominated in childhood and then learn to direct their anger at the
perpetrators as opposed to their loved ones. It is best when they have loved ones who
can accept their imperfections, who are not fooled by their false persona, and do not
leave them when they attack — a tall order indeed, and one that they would rarely
reciprocate. In the struggle of relationship, they sometimes gain a sense of true
empowerment that is anchored in feelings and the body, where they can tell the truth
and have it received without judgment. It is then that they can satisfy the needs that
drive them, balancing their upper chakra displacement, and move toward psychological
health.

Excess and deficiency in the throat chakra are easily recognized. As this is a gateway

between inner and outer worlds, we can tell just by listening how open this gateway is.
Does someone ramble incessantly or are they perpetually quiet? Does the voice have
resonance or is it pinched and whiny? The fast talkers are discharging energy through
their throat chakras, and the quiet ones are locked inside without enough energy to
break free.

Our individuality is our personal rhythm of pulsating.

STANLEY KELEMAN

Deficiency

A person with a deficient fifth chakra cannot get his words together. His voice may be
weak, airy, pinched, or rhythmically erratic. There is extreme self-consciousness and
shyness, a need to hide, and a fear of humiliation. Sometimes there is good
communication within, but it is never released through the gateway. Sometimes the
communication within is restricted, and there is a great separation between mind and
body.

Usually the closer a topic is to the real feelings inside, the harder it is to communicate.
We may find someone who communicates very well at work when conducting business
meetings, writing reports, or talking on the telephone, but has extreme difficulty talking
to his wife and family about what he wants and needs. Since this chakra is about self-
expression of one's truth, we judge its openness by how well we can speak about the
things that are closest to the heart.

Often, it may not occur to a deficient fifth chakra person to communicate at all. He may
forget to tell you he is going out of town next week until the last moment, forget to ask
how your day was, or live in an interior world of conversation where he thinks that he
already did all of that. It does not occur to such a person to initiate conversations about
difficult situations or to use words as a way of gaining more information. He may not feel
he even has the right to ask questions. Such a person may have been heavily
interrogated during childhood and learned to keep this chakra private as a defense (see
figure 5.3).
Excess

With an excessive fifth chakra, talking is a defense that is used as a way of staying in
control. An excessive fifth chakra controls the conversation, the subject matter, and
rhythm so as to bring its owner into the center of attention.

As the fifth chakra is one of the gateways through which stress can be discharged,
excess verbiage can be a means of getting rid of energy. This was apparent with a
client who flew into a torrent of words whenever we did any bioenergetic charging
exercises. The words occupied her consciousness and kept her from fully feeling her
body, while simultaneously discharging the excess energy. Displaced rage is often
expressed through rapid talking as well.

With an excessive fifth chakra, there is much talk with little real content. Clients may go
into a lengthy description of a situation that happened during the week, complete with
innumerable details, and yet avoid saying anything about how they actually felt. Again,
this is an attempt to discharge energy, avoid feelings, and have some sense of power
over the situation (see figure 5.3).

Excess

Removed Jrom the core and the grounding
influence of the tower chakras, an excessive

expresses randomly from the
surface personality.

Deficiency

Attempts to move outward with
communication swirl backward, into the
cere. Outside communication coming in
bombards the chakra, which retreats in fear.

Figure 5.3. Fifth Chakra Excess and Deficiency

Combinations

Lack of ground can produce either excess or deficiency within the throat chakra. For
some people, lack of ground may result in excessive speech that is void of real content.
For others, lack of ground creates such fear that they can scarcely get their words out at
all. These people may feel swirling energy almost like vertigo when they attempt to
speak, which inhibits their ability to think clearly. This closes off the throat chakra and
creates a deficient condition.

It is quite common to have throat chakras with both excessive and deficient
characteristics, allowing us to communicate well in some instances, and poorly in
others. One person may be able to communicate feelings with grace and dignity, yet
have no confidence to push outward in work and career. Others may speak well with
strangers but clam up with intimate partners.

As this chakra is a gateway, it opens and closes rapidly. It is highly sensitive to the
situation at hand. It coordinates many voices inside, including those from the past and
from different parts of us. The throat chakra must then integrate them into one solid and
whole voice, as it reaches out to communicate.
Balance

The health of the throat chakra rests in neither extreme, but in its ability to accurately
communicate the truth of one's experience, witness and meet another's truth, and
approach life creatively and effectively. Balanced characteristics reveal a person with
good communication skills, both in self-expression and effective listening. A good
listener can ask questions that elicit information, make use of that information, and let
someone know that they have been heard and understood. With a healthy fifth chakra,
one's voice is resonant and pleasant to listen to, and has natural rhythms with
appropriate tonality and volume. They can project or speak quietly when needed. In
conversation, there is a balance between speaking and listening. Since the chakra
relates to rhythm, there is a sense of timing and grace in one's activities and body
movements. Energetically, the pulsation of life flows freely and vibrantly, without jerky
motions, self-consciousness, or agitation.

Lastly, a person with a strong fifth chakra lives life creatively. They are fairly well
individuated and are not bound by fear to accepted ways of doing things. As the lower
chakra energy moves into the upper chakras, form becomes less important, while

intelligence, consciousness, and the ability to think become more so. Living creatively
does not apply merely to the arts, but to an attitude about what is possible. We cannot
assess the quality of the throat chakra by whether one paints, dances, or plays music. It
is possible to do all these things by rote, without any creativity at all. Instead, the throat
chakra is the gateway through which the forward-thinking mind works with the life
stream of the body to create new ways of approaching life. This may be apparent in the
way we dress, speak, or vary the route we take to work. Do we dare to be creative? Do
we see a life full of infinite possibilities? Are we creatures of habit, or do we fully
participate in each moment anew? This is the mark of true creativity.

RESTORING

THE LOTUS

Healing the Fifth Chakra

Several years ago, a friend offered me some voice lessons in exchange for bodywork.
As I have always loved music but have never had a strong singing voice, I was
delighted. But I soon discovered that whenever I tried to breathe deeply and project my
voice fully, I started to cry. When I tried to control myself and stop the tears, my voice
and breath lost their fullness.

ability of a substance to resonate sympathetically is the result of its elasticity.

RANDALL McCLELLAN
My teacher was very patient with me and told me this was quite common. She said that
the emotions are connected with the voice, and that we cannot touch one without
touching the other. It was true. I could not open my mouth and simultaneously hide what
I was feeling that day any more than I could reveal what I was feeling without opening
my mouth. This is not only true when we try to sing, but also true of our voice projection
in general. When we constrict our emotions, we simultaneously constrict our
expression.

Some of my healing during that period came from simply letting out the sound of my
grief and anger. At other times I needed to talk about what was going on inside of
me — to put it into an intellectual context and share it with someone who would
understand. Sometimes it was a combination of abstract and specific communication. In
the end, I was able to arrive at a place of joy where the sound could emanate from my
throat with fullness, from a place of confidence instead of fear. I did not keep up with it
long enough to become a great singer, but the experience offered me a chance to
connect body, breath, and voice in a new way.

I bring up this story to illustrate the fact that healing the fifth chakra involves a variety of
levels simultaneously, ranging from physical to mental. It includes eliminating sound
pollution, giving attention to our bodies, opening the voice through toning, chanting, or
singing, learning clear communication skills, and quieting ourselves enough to listen to
the subtler vibrations and messages within. Each of these basic principles is explored
more fully below.
The Vbraitnq Body

There is no greater and more living resonator of sound tr

HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN
Since our bodies are the resonating chambers of the sounds we make, it is essential to
work through bodily tensions. Release of tensions and held emotions restores the
natural reflexive and vibratory nature of the body. Without this work, it is unlikely that the
throat chakra would be free of constraints or that we would be living deeply in our truth.
The reclamation of the body is the restoration of our unique vibration.

Stanley Keleman, in Your Body Speaks Its Mind, describes a simple process for getting
in touch with our basic pulsating vibration:

If you hold your breath and pay attention to your chest and abdomen, you will feel the
coming and going of excitement. If you clench your fist or tighten your thigh muscles
and sustain the contraction, you will feel a fine vibration throughout your entire
organism. If the vibration deepens, you'll begin to experience it as a pulsating. Sustain
the contraction until the pulsating deepens, then let it go, and you become aware of a
streaming: an internal flowing which is difficult to see but which you can feel. 5
It is this streaming which is the signature of our aliveness and individuality. Whenever a
powerful urge to move forward is contained, we can feel the streaming of energy
pulsating through our bodies. We may also feel it after physical exertion or emotional
expression, such as after a good run, a good cry, or a powerful sexual experience. This
brings us to a vital experience of self in connection, where we are open to our own
vibratory resonance.

Many people are afraid of containing this much charge. For some (especially those
typically overcharged) having energy means having to immediately do something with it.
If we express ourselves before our truth is fully ripened, then our actions are out of sync
with our potential fullness. This is commonly experienced as poor timing.
Years ago, I habitually pushed myself in my work rather than waiting for my organic
fullness to motivate me. I would end up running into a kind of creative bankruptcy,
emptiness of ideas, and lack of energy. When I rushed myself ahead of my own natural
rhythm, I felt unprepared, stressed, anxious, and even a bit breathless. We push our
timing out of sync because of financial pressure, emotional insecurity, fear, hunger for
power, and the excessive rule of the mind as it orders our bodies with its barrage of
"shoulds." As the lower chakras become strong, the security from chakra one allows
proper timing to occur, the emotional stability of chakra two lets our feelings become
ripe and full, the sense of our own power from chakra three does not need to prove
itself, and chakra four balances mind and body. At this point we can dance to the
rhythm of our own personal vibration as it resonates with the environment and the
people around us.

EXERCISE

Allow yourself to move freely around the room with your eyes closed. Try to move from
the natural inclinations of your body, rather than from the decisions from your head.
After your body begins to loosen up, accompany each movement with an abstract
sound that emanates from the movement. Let yourself be open to an experience of
"movement making sound," and look for a place where the movement and sound are a
coordinated vibration that runs through your whole being. Let yourself enjoy the
experience and see where it takes you. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Sound awareness is especially important, for although we easily close our mouth and
eyes to what we don't want to take in, we can't really close our ears. Nature did not give
us earlids. Our ears remain open and working even when we sleep.

STEVEN HALPERN

Cleaning Out the Field

In addition to tuning into our own vibration, we need to pay careful attention to the outer
vibrations that we experience daily. What is the level of sound and media pollution to
which you are exposed? What kind of rhythms does your body experience in terms of
eating, sleeping, sexuality, activity, and rest? What kind of vibrations do you find
incompatible with the resonance of your own consciousness? How can you reduce or
eliminate toxic noise and toxic people from your environment?

Soundproofing walls and windows, wearing earplugs around loud machinery, shortening
unwanted phone calls, and allowing personal rhythms to settle into soothing and regular
patterns all help protect our vibrational field. This acts as preventive medicine.
Eliminating distracting patterns enables us to better hear ourselves and others on a

deeper and subtler level.

In this day and age, however, it is difficult to eliminate sound pollution and still live in an
urban environment. Since we can't always screen out harmful noise, it becomes
essential to take time each day to be perfectly quiet. We need a period of time when we
don't answer the phone, cannot be interrupted, and can meditate in silence with
earplugs or listen to soothing music under headphones. Periodic weekends in the
country, where background noise resonates in a completely different rhythm, can help
our vibrational field to retune itself, much like resetting a thermostat. Without this, we
eventually tune out unwanted sound and simultaneously tune out large portions of our
consciousness as well.
Deep Ustemnq

In silence, inner listening forms the bonding of heart and mind.

Listening is an essential part of communication. In taking the time to be quiet, we are
able to truly listen to ourselves. The chatter of the mind eventually dies down and the
song of the heart pours forth. In this opening into silence, the upper and lower chakras
can enter into resonance with each other, connecting mind and body.

EXERCISE

Sit in a quiet place by yourself and let your mind become quiet. See how many layers of
sounds you can detect around you. Listen to the sound of your own breathing, the
rhythm of your heartbeat, and the blood pulsing in your ears. Hear the birds, the distant
traffic, the sound of the wind. Then let all these sounds blend into one general sound,
where the rhythm of your breath and the subtle movements of your body become part of
the sound around you.

As your body merges with this sound, allow it to subtly move with this rhythm. See
where the movement takes you, being careful to stay with the overall sound you hear.
Toning

Toning encourages the basic vibration within you to come out through your throat as
sound. Toning does not force the voice into specific words, melodies, or sounds, but
works with both body and breath to create pure expression, devoid of intellectual
meaning or aesthetic appeal.

When we move physically, or are moved emotionally, it's natural to make sound. We
squeal with pleasure when we're excited or groan when we're hurt. When we exert
ourselves, we seem to have more strength if we grunt. Unfortunately, we get
embarrassed by these sounds and learn to stifle them, closing down the throat chakra.

Pain frequently is the result of tension, and groaning is nature's way of relieving it.

LAUREL ELIZABETH KEYES
Toning is best done after a brief period of warming up the body. Stand erect and stretch
upward, reaching for the sky. Stretch to the right and left, forward and back, loosening
the torso. Let your body shake and bounce, letting out any sounds that want to emerge.
Shake your legs out, swing your arms. Let your body become loose and vibrant.
When you feel sufficiently warmed up, stand with both feet planted firmly on the ground,
and bring your arms back to your sides or lift them above your head. Close your eyes
and listen to the sounds within you.

Take a deep breath and open your mouth, letting the breath out in as full a sound as
possible. It may come out as a groan, a squeal, a guffaw, or any manner of strange
sounds. Or there may be a variety of sounds that change from one moment to the next.
Just let them emerge without judgment, opening to the spontaneity of expression as
much as possible.

After a while, you will find that the tone settles into a note that feels particularly right for
you — a note that you can sustain. You may need to experiment with many notes to find
this special tone. Allow yourself to sing this note as fully as you can, reaching for
resonance, relaxing your diaphragm, throat, and chest. See if you can feel where the

sound originates in your body. Is it coming from your throat? Your chest? Your belly?
Your head? Try to let it come from your whole body at once, moving any body part that
seems disconnected until it is integrated into the sound as well.
Eventually, the release of the tone will settle naturally to a place of quiet. Notice how
your body feels, what you can hear. Notice how present you feel. Write or draw in your
journal, and feel the flow of creativity that often is released by this exercise.
Chanting and Uonq Mantras

The mantra is not merely a technique of awakening; it is actually and in itself a state of
being indicative of the presence of divinity.

AJIT MOOKERJEE

Chanting is a more sophisticated form of toning. Chanting lulls the vibrations of our body
and consciousness into resonance by the rhythmic repetition of a simple phrase or
sound. This rhythm refines our awareness. The sounds used in chanting may have
specific meanings that we wish to instill into our consciousness — as with repeating
affirmations about things we would like to change, or may have no meaning and
therefore bypass the conscious mind entirely. Both, however, are rhythmic experiences
where the conscious mind does not have to think very much. This allows us to
surrender to a deeper resonance or enter a trance state. Here our individuated
consciousness expands to merge with the greater consciousness and rhythm of life.
Mantras are chants uttered silently in the mind. They replace the ceaseless rhythm of
our busy thoughts, and therefore cleanse, simplify, and order the mind. Mantra literally
means "instrument of the mind." Transcendental Meditation (TM) is a meditation
technique where one mentally repeats a certain sound that is individually given by a
teacher or guru. Research has shown that silently chanting one's mantra creates a
meditative state by synchronizing brain waves between various lobes of the brain.6
In a world where we are constantly bombarded by dissonance, intoning a mantra can be
another way to recalibrate our basic vibrational essence. Through mantra meditation,
we eventually enter a quiet and rhythmic state, emptied of the disjointed mental garbage
we pick up throughout the day and filled with a well-tuned attentiveness that brings
greater alertness and sensitivity. Some yogis believe that chanting mantras releases a
"liquid nectar" in the pineal gland that contributes to the alteration of consciousness.
This may be due to the rhythmic play of the tongue against the roof of the mouth, which
is believed to release the "nectar."7

Each chakra has a specific mantra sound. The list below gives both the seed sounds

from the ancient tantric texts — believed to access the elemental qualities of the

chakras — and the vowel sounds, which resonate in the body itself. For the Westerner,

the vowel sounds produce a stronger experience, but I encourage you to experiment

with both and find what works best for you.

■CHAKRA ONE: Seed sound Lam (/a/7/77), vowel sound Ohh (as in road)

■CHAKRA TWO: Seed sound Vam (vahm), vowel sound Oooo (as in rule)

■CHAKRA THREE: Seed sound Ram (rahm), vowel sound Ahh (as in father)

■CHAKRA FOUR: Seed sound Yam (yahm), vowel sound Ayy (as in play)

■CHAKRA FIVE: Seed sound Ham (hahm), vowel sound Eeee (as in sleep)

■CHAKRA SIX: Seed sound Om (ohm), resonant sound Mmm

■CHAKRA SEVEN: No seed sound given, resonant sound Nngg (as in sing)

Leah Garfield, author of Sound Medicine, suggests chanting the seed sounds in a

specific rhythm nine times each, with a full minute of silence between each chakra.8

To chant the vowel sounds, begin with some simple stretching exercises, and then sit or

stand comfortably so that the breath is deep and full. As you chant the vowels,

remember to open up to both the resonance of the voice and the vibration of the body

where the chakra resides. Let the sound come out as fully as possible, for a minimum of

one whole minute when by yourself. With a group, stagger the breaths and continue the

sound even longer.

CREATE YOUR OWN MANTRA

After chanting the vowel sounds and experiencing the way they resonate within each of
your chakras, you may wish to try creating a silent mantra to use in meditation. The
following technique is designed to create a mantra that resonates with the chakras you
would most like to improve.

Pick the sounds that go with one, two, or at most three of the chakras you feel need the
most attention. Put the sounds together in a way that is pleasing to you. For example, if
you want to work on the first and fourth chakras, you would pick the sounds Ohh and
Ayy. Then your mantra might sound something like Ayoh, Ayoh, Ayoh.
Then sit in silent meditation mentally intoning the sound you have created. Feel it
resonate within the chakras you have picked. Imagine them expanding or clearing. (This
exercise works best when it is used consistently over a period of time.)
Communication

So far we have listed techniques to tone the chakra in general, which allows the sound
to come through our bodies more easily. Now we turn to the more specific aspect of the
throat chakra: communication itself. If you find you are having trouble getting your point
across to someone, it may be that you have not understood his point. Often, a person
cannot truly listen until they feel they have been heard. We have previously applied the
art of listening to the sounds around and within us. Now we apply that deep listening to
communication with others.

THE NEED TO BE HEARD

wish to be understood, seek firs

One of the most profound human needs is the need to be heard. When this simple need
is met by attentive, empathetic listening, we feel complete and ready to move onward. It
is amazing how much healing can take place when our story, feelings, or opinions are
simply heard, even if there is no change in the circumstances. The need to be heard
validates our truth, our individuality, and our very existence. If we cannot be heard, we
cease to exist in anything but our own minds. We feel crazy, doubtful of our own inner
voice, and of our reality. When we cannot trust our experience, we split off from the
body and, hence, split off from reality.

hat I'm actually saying.
ROBERT MAIDMENT

The need to be heard is often more important than finding solutions. This is a frequent
dynamic with couples. If one partner cannot do anything about the problem his spouse
is having, he does not want to hear about it. What is often more important than fixing the
problem is acknowledging the other person's feelings. This simple practice can go a
long way toward healing situations and facilitating good communication.
Karen and George were clearly immersed in this dynamic. George was frequently away
on business; Karen kept the house while he was gone, minded the children, and tried to
pursue her own career as a seminar coordinator in her copious free time. Needless to
say, it was more difficult for Karen to do her work when George was away, but since
George earned the primary money for the family, they saw no way to avoid his frequent
absence. Karen needed to complain about her situation to George, but because he saw
no way to change it, he refused to hear about it. Instead she needed him to simply
acknowledge the difficulty it made for her, even if he could not change it. Then she
would stop harping on it all the time, and stop making him feel worthless for the work he
was doing.

In turn, George wanted Karen to understand that he was not exactly having fun on his
business trips. He didn't like being away from home and felt pressured and
underappreciated in his job. Since she didn't want him to go away in the first place, she
in turn did not want to hear about his experience. So they closed themselves off from
each other even during the brief periods they had together, as neither was able to
express or feel heard about their primary concerns. As a result, their connection was

seriously strained. Although they could not change their immediate circumstances,
getting them to simply listen and acknowledge each other's realities helped
tremendously to improve their basic connection and cooperation with each other.
ACTIVE LISTENING

Active listening enables another person to have the experience of being heard. In active
listening, we quiet ourselves and turn our entire focus of energy toward the other
person. As she speaks, we may nod or say "mmhm" to let her know that we are still with
her, but we do not interrupt or make any comments. When the speaker is finished, we
ask if she is complete. We may then want to ask questions or clarify something, but we
still refrain from making comments, suggestions, arguments, or judgments.
When we feel that we understand what the speaker has said, we then respond by
explaining what we have just heard, but in our own words. We might respond with a
statement like, "What I hear you saying is that you're tired of always being the one to
initiate talks about our relationship, and that it feels like I don't really care if I never
share the things I feel with you." In this response, you are simply repeating what you
have heard regardless of whether or not you agree with it, or have a counterpoint to
offer. In repeating what you have heard, it is also important not to parrot the exact
words, but to phrase your response in a way that communicates your own
understanding of what has been said.

Your co-communicator then has a chance to let you know whether or not you heard her
correctly. She might say, "That's close, but not quite right. It's not that I think you don't
care at all, but that I don't know whether you care — that I don't know where I stand.
When you don't let me know how you feel, I imagine the worst." If there is a correction, it
is important to try again to see if you now understand correctly.

"So when I don't communicate with you about how I feel, you don't know for sure where
you stand with me, and that makes you likely to imagine that I might not care."
"Yes, that's what I'm trying to say."

Only when the first speaker is satisfied that she has been truly heard is it time for the
second speaker to share his own truth.

"If you're satisfied that I heard you correctly, then I would like to share with you how it is
for me. Is that OK?"
"Yes, go ahead."

"The way it works with me is that I am least likely to communicate when I care the most.
It's as if caring makes it too scary to let you know how much things matter to me. I know
it sounds ridiculous, but where I am right now, when my heart chakra feels exposed and
vulnerable, I retreat into silence until I know it's safe to come out."
"So, I hear that it's hard for you to communicate when your feelings are really engaged
and your heart is open. You feel safer in silence."

After both people are satisfied that they have been fully heard (and this may go back
and forth several times before it is complete), they can begin to create a solution that
will address both concerns.

"When you're not sure where you stand with me, I would love it if you would just say to

me, 'I'm not sure where I stand right now.' That would clarify what's going on."

"And when you retreat into silence because you're scared, I want to encourage you to

tell me that you need to be quiet, instead of just retreating, which makes me feel shut

out. If you say you need space, I can understand and not interpret it as a rejection."

It is equally important to listen to yourself while you are speaking. If we are experiencing

difficulties in communication, it can be helpful to record our conversations with others, or

our solo practice conversations, to hear nuances and subtleties. How would it feel to

receive the words you are speaking? What can you hear between the words as you

listen to your own voice? How can your communication become more direct and

effective?

Wrumq

Writing is a form of communication that transcends time. With pen in hand (or computer
keyboard) we can sit in silence until the right words come, write them down, change
them around, or say exactly what we please and throw it out before it unnecessarily
hurts anyone's feelings. For those who have trouble communicating on the spot, it helps
to take time to write out your feelings on your own time.

David found himself tongue-tied whenever his wife got angry. She was a Challenger-
Defender who was quick with words and a master at argument. He was an
Endurer/Masochist, a silent type who, without arguments to defend himself, would
quietly nod in her presence, shrug his shoulders, and pretend to agree with her. Hours
later he would review the conversation in his mind and think of all the juicy comebacks
he could have said, and feel lost and helpless. His only comeback was to be passive-
aggressive and emotionally removed, which of course only perpetuated the
dysfunctional dynamic.

I encouraged David to sit down and write about his unexpressed and unresolved issues
with her, using several forms of communication. The first form was for the purpose of
finding his own voice. He was to begin by writing what he wished to tell her without
censoring it. He could use any words he wanted, let out his anger without holding back,
and go on without interruption for as long as he needed. It did not have to be a coherent
argument — it was just for venting his feelings. This form was not given to her, but was
used just to prime the pump and loosen the throat chakra from its habitual constriction.
Then, I asked him to read his writing aloud to me so I could be an active listener and let
him feel what it was like to be heard. In being heard, he could experience how to use
the power of his voice to find resonance and completion. He could learn to better trust
his own voice.

He was then able to take what he had written and find ways to communicate the salient
points without the heat of emotion, so that the words might better meet their target. With
this clarity, we began role-playing a dialog between him and his ex-wife, so that he
could practice sticking to his truth in the face of opposition, while I gave the kind of
answer he usually received from her. He was then ready to try the dialog in real life.
Much to his surprise, he found her far more able to listen to him now that he was clear
on what he wanted to say, and said it firmly and directly, without the urgent press of
feelings that previously tied him in knots.

Writing can also be helpful when communicating with people who are truly unable to
hear what we need to say. They may no longer be living, may be geographically
unavailable, or may not wish to be in contact with us for reasons of their own. These
reasons need not keep us in an unresolved state, and working through all but the last
steps of the above process can help us complete our own process and feel more
resolved in the situation. If the person is still alive, it may be useful to send a revised
letter even if we know they will not respond.

Unfinished conversations tend to continue in our mind, distracting us from being fully
present. This exercise clears the throat chakra of unfinished conversation, letting us
clear the disk so that it has room to store new information. We can then listen with an
open mind.
Musk?

Music is a cry of the soul. It is a revelation, a thing to be reverenced. Performances of
great musical works are for us what the rites and festivals of religion were to the
ancients — an initiation into the mysteries of the human soul.

FREDERICK DELIUS

If chanting, toning, and mantra meditation have the capacity to affect our innermost
being, then music must have a profound effect on our entire mind-body system. Music
can move us to tears, fill us with joy, inspire our body to shake and dance, or calm and

excite us. Music in the background of movies and television plays our emotions like an
instrument. Music sells products in advertising, and entertains, teases, inspires, and
unites. Songs are the spiritual record of humanity, recording its trials and triumphs, and
a binding thread of communities, religions, and political movements. One way to destroy
a culture is to destroy its music.

Music deliciously combines upper and lower chakra experiences. It bathes the body in
rhythm and resonance, while entertaining the mind with its complexity of meter, melody,
instrumentation, and message. Music unites the soul of the body with the mind and
spirit.

Shamanic medicine works in part on the principle of resonance through music and
drumming. Music can put us into a trance, where the body lets go and enters into a
different state of consciousness. In trance, we are able to transcend the ego and find a
broader, spiritual state more conducive to healing.

Technically speaking, music travels across auditory nerves to the thalamus in the brain,
which affects our emotions. The thalamus then stimulates the cortex, which sends
responsive impulses back to the thalamus and hypothalamus. This circuit, known as the
thalamic reflex, produces foot tapping and body swaying as the music intensifies.
Surrounding the thalamus is the limbic system. This is the part of the brain that is most
connected to emotions and to the endocrine system, which affects the chakras and
influences our involuntary processes of breathing, heart rate, circulation, and glandular
secretions.

Hal A. Lingerman, in The Healing Energies of Music, suggests using various kinds of
music to invoke or heal specific emotional states. 9 He lists specific pieces to express or
calm anger, to heal depression or boredom, or to balance hyperactivity, as well as
music for the basic elements and for harmonizing the home and other environments.
While his information is too extensive to include here, I suggest experimenting with
some of his suggestions.

CONCLUSION

All the tragedy in the world, in the individual and in the multitude, comes from lack of
harmony. And harmony is best given by producing harmony in one's own life.

HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN

In the philosophies of India, sound is considered the primordial ingredient of creation.
Sound, crafted from the cosmic drum of Shiva in the celestial realms, was given to
Brahma and Saraswati, the pair of deities that rule over creation and beginnings. The
divine order of the universe, the essence of spirit, and the element of sound are
intricately connected. Without sound, the universe will collapse again into nothingness,
stolen by Mother Kali in her final act of destruction. With sound, we are given the power
to create from within ourselves using the same primordial energies that create the world
around us and indeed, our very selves. With sound, we are given the tools to avert
destruction.

The fifth chakra facilitates a profound passage between the abstract information of
conception, image, and idea, and the manifested realm of the material world. It takes us
through the heart, where we communicate and connect with each other; through our
power where we command and contain; through our emotions; and down into the
coordination of the cells within our bodies. On the spiritual plane, sound brings us up
through the lower chakras (using body, movement, will, and breath) into resonance and
harmony, information and understanding. It is the prime transmitter of consciousness
itself. Although sound may be the primordial ingredient of existence, it is
consciousness — created from its vibrational impact — that creates and maintains the
very web of life.

CHAKRA SIX

Seeing Our Way Through

SIXTH CHAKRA AT A GLANCE

ELEMENT

Light
NAME

Ajna (to perceive and command)

PURPOSE

Pattern recognition

ISSUES

Image

Intuition

Imagination

Visualization

Insight

Dreams

Vision

COLOR

Indigo

LOCATION

Forehead, brow, carotid plexus, third eye

IDENTITY

Archetypal

ORIENTATION

Self-reflection

DEMON

Illusion

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE

Adolescence

DEVELOPMENTAL TASK

Establishment of personal identity
Ability to perceive patterns
BASIC RIGHTS
To see

BALANCED CHARACTERISTICS

Intuitive

Perceptive

Imaginative

Good memory

Good dream recall

Able to think symbolically

Able to visualize

TRAUMAS AND ABUSES

What you see doesn't go with what you're told

Invalidation of intuition and psychic occurrences

Ugly or frightening environment (war zone, violence)

DEFICIENCY

Insensitivity

Poor vision

Poor memory

Difficulty seeing future

Lack of imagination

Difficulty visualizing

Poor dream recall

Denial (can't see what is going on)

Monopolarized (one true right and only way)

EXCESS

Hallucinations

Delusions

Obsessions

Difficulty concentrating

Nightmares

PHYSICAL MALFUNCTIONS

Headaches
Vision problems

HEALING PRACTICES

Create visual art
Visual stimulation
Meditation
Psychotherapy

Coloring and drawing, art therapy

Working with memory

Connecting image with feeling

Dreamwork

Hypnosis

Guided visualizations

Past life regression therapy
AFFIRMATIONS
I see all things in clarity.
I am open to the wisdom within.
I can manifest my vision.

SHADES OF INDIGO

Monica's image of herself was a shocking contrast to the person who sat in front of
me. A stunningly attractive woman, she was graceful, articulate, and dynamic. I found
her immediately likable, so I was surprised to find that she felt lonely and isolated,
unable to find a partner or close friends. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
If consciousness fails, the images sink back again into the dark, into nothingness, and
everything remains as if unhappened. But if it succeeds in grasping the meaning of the
images, a transformation takes place, and not merely of consciousness, hut strangely
enough, of the unconscious as well; there is an activation of the "nothingness."

ANIELAJAFFE

Contrary to my impression, her self-image was abhorrent. She avoided social
gatherings because she was, in her own words, "so obscenely fat" that she was
embarrassed to appear in public. This of course kept her home alone on weekends,
ironically "eating her heart out" to fill her loneliness. Monica carried a mere twenty
pounds above the popular ideal of women's bodies, yet to her, the extra curves weighed
far more than that. Try as she might to fit the image that popular culture had
programmed into her consciousness, she could not. The mere effort of doing so pulled
her out of her natural self, overriding the basic messages of the body. Every Saturday
night, her body staged a food rebellion, sabotaging her attempts to force it into
submission. Despite her efforts to diet and become slim, her body followed the image
she held of the fat girl which was fast becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. She was

convinced that no one would have the slightest interest in an overweight woman, and
her isolation became false proof that her theory was correct. The vicious cycle of giving
up her natural self to fit an outer image she could not achieve plunged her into shame,
reinforcing the negative image that perpetuated the whole cycle. She was a victim of the
image syndrome.

Stuart also complained about loneliness. Unlike Monica, his self-image was not
particularly negative, but his image of an acceptable girlfriend fit only the narrowest of
possibilities. He was unable to see beauty in women of various shapes, sizes, or ages,
and would have confirmed Monica's belief system entirely, had they ever met. As a
result, the women who were attracted to Stuart were rejected from the start as
unsuitable. In fact, to hear him talk, it was as if they did not even exist as he constantly
cried, "Nobody loves me!" When I pointed out to him that many women were interested
in him, Stuart replied that "they didn't count." The idealized women of Stuart's
imagination were more real to him than anyone he might meet.

William was able to create a reality that matched the image he carried. He had a
prestigious, well-paying job, an attractive wife and home, kept his body in good shape,
and lived up to the image he had adopted for himself in every way he could. Still William
was unhappy. As he grew older, there were emotional stirrings within that kept
sabotaging his perfect image. His marriage showed signs of strain, he was starting to
drink too much, and he lived daily with an angst that he could neither name nor
overcome. William was living his image instead of his true self, living by outer direction
instead of inner feelings. Having successfully followed his illusion to fruition, he was now
experiencing a rude awakening at the midpoint of his life. As he looked beneath the
surface, he discovered he was totally mystified about who he really was. He needed to
learn a whole new way of seeing in order to recognize the person that dwelt within.
Each of these stories is about what can happen when consciousness gets wrapped
around an image. While the issues described contain other chakra dynamics as well,
each of these people needed to confront the discrepancy between image and reality
and learn to see at a deeper level.

When our illusory images are reinforced by the culture at large, this becomes very
difficult to do. We are bombarded daily by images that tell us how to look, how to feel,
how to behave, what to buy, where to go, and even what to see. We drive down the
freeway without noticing the billboards of slim ladies and muscled men holding cigarette
packs, even though our mind is unconsciously programmed with these pictures. As I
write this, my son is glued to the TV. He is being programmed with the values inherent
in the shows he watches, which compete with our attempts to influence his conscious
mind in other ways.

Our thinking process is believed to be 90 percent visual. The images around us parade
through our fantasies and dreams, our conscious mind and our unconscious behavior,
affecting all that we see and do. They distort the nature of what we see, creating
illusions that we then take for reality. What light can we shine through the sixth chakra
to illuminate this problem?

I like to think of the sixth chakra as a metaphoric stained glass window through which
the light of consciousness shines on its way to manifestation. When the sun shines
through colored glass, it projects the image of the stained glass on whatever solid
surface it hits. The light of consciousness shines through the pictures we hold in our
minds, shaping what we create. These images are also filters through which we see
things, sometimes distorting our perceptions.

Stuart projected his inability to love upon the women he met. Monica created a self-
image out of her basic shame. William was outgrowing his false self and his image was
shattering like glass. The awakening of consciousness requires clearing the third eye of
illusion so we can see what is within and around us without distortion.

The Sanskrit name for this chakra, ajna, means both "to perceive" and "to command."
We see images with our physical eyes, but the third eye center holds those images in
memory, which can distort our perceptions. From these perceptions, we command our
reality.

UNFOLDING THE PETALS

Basic Issues of the Sixth Chakra
Pattern Recognition
Archetypes
Symbols
Images
Dreams
Intuition
Transcendence
Vision
Clairvoyance
Illusion

Openmqthe Third Eye

Psychic development cannot be accomplished by intention and will alone; it needs the
attraction of the symbol.

C. G.JUNG

As we enter the brow chakra, we look back at the steps behind us with new vision.
Adding indigo to our ever-expanding bridge we now have enough colors to see that we
are, indeed, building a rainbow. Once we see what the pattern is becoming, we can
intuit the steps necessary to complete it. Our sight gives us guidance. We can see
where we have been, where we are now, and predict where we are going. This
consciousness lets us know what to do, which explains why the sense of sight is
classically related to the third chakra, even though the sixth chakra is about seeing^
Without vision our actions are mere impulses, but with vision they become creative acts
of will in the service of transformation.

The element of this chakra is light, a higher and faster vibration than that of sound in
the chakra below. Through light, we are blessed with the ability to see, to take in from a
distance the shape and form of things around us. This miraculous act of seeing is the
basic function of this chakra, but this implies far more than seeing with our physical
eyes. Physical perception tells us that something exists, but only the inner sight can tell
us what it is.

While our physical eyes are the organs of outer perception, the sixth chakra relates to
the mystical third eye— the organ of inner perception. The third eye witnesses the
internal screen where memory and fantasy, images and archetypes, intuition and
imagination intertwine on endless display. By watching the contents on this screen, we
create meaning and bring it to consciousness. The purpose of the sixth chakra is to see
the way, and bring the light of consciousness to all that exists within and around us.
Pattern Recognition
The eyes are the gateways to the soul

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
We see the way by learning to recognize patterns. Patterns reveal the identity of a
thing — what it is, what it is for, how to relate to it. Too often, we look at something only

until we recognize the pattern and then we stop. We see someone coming toward us
from across the street. We look at the hair, the body, the walk, trying to distinguish the
pattern until we see who it is. We say, "Oh, that's Kevin," at which point we often stop
taking in new information. Opening the third eye allows us to continue to look; we see
beyond and perceive ever deeper patterns and meaning.

Pattern recognition is like playing a game of connect the dots. At first we see only a
jumble of dots and numbers on the page. But as we make connections between the
dots, an image forms. Even before all the dots are connected, we can guess the image
because we recognize it.

At a critical point in the assembling of information, the incomplete pattern reveals the
whole. While each of our chakras brings us information, it is the task of chakra six to
assemble that information into meaningful patterns. This self-reflection leads to self-
knowledge and wholeness.

Pattern recognition requires the ability to see simultaneously into past, present, and
future. When your friend launches into an all-too-familiar tirade about how he hates his
job, you can predict what he is likely to say next because you've heard it all before. As a
result, you may stop listening to him, and might not even notice if he says something
new. We take information from the past and project it onto the future.
Recognition can shut off the possibility of new information, or it can spare us an
experience we would rather avoid. Our interpretation of the pattern will decide which we
choose. If I find myself in a relationship that reveals a dynamic I have been in before, I
do not need to continue the whole relationship to find out what's likely to happen. I can
choose to remove myself from the distant or deceitful lover as soon as the pattern
becomes clear. Once we recognize a pattern, we can intuit what it will become and
guide our actions accordingly. This is the beginning of wisdom.

In the recognition of patterns, we find our way to insight. Insight is the ability to see
within, the "aha" of recognizing a pattern, seeing where it relates to the larger picture,
seeing what it means. It is within the self that the information from our experiences has
been gathering and is stored in our memory. It is only by seeing within that we can
cross-reference that information and recognize meaningful patterns.
Each time we recognize a pattern, we move toward wholeness. This wholeness has an
identity, which gives it both meaning and purpose. Opening the third eye allows us to
see the big picture, transcend our egocentricity, and find the deeper meaning inherent in
all things. As inner sight develops, illusions are shattered, dreams are integrated, clarity
begins, and consciousness extends yet another step beyond what was available
through the lower five chakras alone. We now access the broad vision that enables us
to see our way toward completion.
Illusion

In perceiving patterns we often run into illusion — the demon of the sixth chakra. Illusion
wrests our consciousness from open-minded perception, fixing it upon a frozen image.
An illusion is a static image, displaced in the stream of time, and is for that reason
unreal. The illusion I hold of how something should be is usually an image of what it
currently is not. My attachment to it pulls me out of present time, where I might see
realistically. My fixation on my body ten pounds thinner fails to appreciate my body the
way it is now. My illusion of how a relationship should be makes me criticize all the
places my relationship falls short of that image, and I fail to see the meaning these
issues might have for me. The three people described at the beginning of this chapter
were all suffering from illusion, fixated in an image that kept them from living clearly and
authentically.

Illusions are held in place by an investment of psychic energy. When we fixate on an

image, everything becomes food for its embellishment. If we think someone dislikes us,
we take the slightest disharmony as proof. A hypochondriac takes the slightest ache as
proof of illness. When we invest in an illusion, it ties up our energy and perpetuates the
attachment. The more we are attached, of course, the more energy we need to invest,
and it is here that we run into the danger of obsession. Since illusion does not feed back
the energy we invest, it does not bring satisfaction or completion and, like an addiction,
continues to lure us into its false promises.

Anya escaped the unpleasant dramas of her family by reading romance novels as she
grew up. Without consciously realizing it, she had adopted the illusion of the love affair
that leads to the "happily ever after" model of marriage. As an adult, she invested all of
her time and energy into her husband and family, never considering that the marriage
might not last. As she was so invested in this image, she could not afford to look at the
serious shortcomings of her marriage. She was in denial about her husband's abuse of
herself and her children, and this denial pushed her to invest ever more energy in trying
to please him, hiding the abuse from her friends, and maintaining the outer image of a
happy family. As this investment took away from her social life and her financial viability,
it became even more important to uphold the marriage, and her denial deepened. She
obsessed about her husband constantly, always thinking about his needs at the
expense her own.

Maria was abandoned by her father and was left with an angry mother. To make it
worse, her father returned and left again several times before he finally disappeared
forever. Maria can remember the time she spent, as a child, gazing out the window,
watching for his car and wondering if he was ever coming back. Eventually, she
recognized the pattern and realized that, even if he appeared once in a while, he was
gone for good. Now an adult, Maria obsesses about her boyfriend abandoning her. No
matter how much he assures her of his intentions, she interprets the slightest
withdrawal as a sign that it's over, superimposing a past pattern on the present
situation. Sometimes she feels compelled to drive by where he works just to see his car,
as if the presence of the car gives her reassurance. Both the car and the abandonment
are illusions through which she tries to find some homeostasis.

When illusion is fed by a sixth chakra excess, it becomes obsession or delusion.
Obsessions fix an unusual amount of energy on a particular issue; delusion assembles
elaborate illusions around a central theme. Removed from the grounded connection of
the first chakra, the upper chakras spin wildly, like an engine with the clutch
disengaged — lots of activity with no forward movement. The more we invest in an
illusion, the harder it is to let go of it. The investment seals the energy into the illusion,
giving it archetypal proportions. Sealed in, we are trapped into repetitive cycles that
keep us from true understanding.
Archetypes

As bits of information assemble and begin to reveal the identity of the whole, we enter
the world of archetypes. If we see a cat when connecting the dots, we recognize it
because we have seen cats before. It may be a black cat or a tiger, a skinny kitten or a

tailless manx, but all fall into the same archetypal category of cat.

of instinct is a spiritual goal toward which

C.G.JUNG

The archetype is a composite of images and experiences that are constellated by a
common theme. Archetypes are like morphogenetic fields that shape our
understanding. Like the strange attractors of chaos theory, they cannot be seen directly,
but are apparent in the events of our lives. Someone who is chronically driven to self-
sacrificing benevolence may be overly influenced by the positive aspects of the Great
Mother archetype. Someone who lives in fear of being devoured by women may be

suffering from the negative side of this archetype, the Terrible Mother. Stuart was so
seduced by his inner anima archetype that his fantasy woman possessed his heart and
no real woman could compete.

The archetype, a precipitate of all human experience, lies in the unconscious, whence it
powerfully influences our life. To release its projections, to raise its contents into
consciousness, becomes a task and a duty.

JOLANDE JACOBI

Archetypes can be symbolically represented by what is called the archetypal image.
When an archetypal image is not fully integrated into the ego, then we are subject to
illusion. For example, the Hero archetype represents the quest to achieve something
extraordinary. William's drive toward success was a partial reflection of the Hero's
quest, but his ego was so fused with an image of conformity that it negated the
possibility of anything extraordinary. As a result, his success had a feeling of emptiness
and left his soul thirsting for deeper meaning. Sorting out this difference allowed William
to access the deeper archetypal energy of the Hero in a conscious way and orient his
life toward more soul-fulfilling achievement.

Each of the chakras can be correlated to an archetype, as shown in figure 6.1. In
addition, each chakra has the archetypal energy of its associated element {earth, water,
fire, air, sound, light, and thought). The chakra system itself is a still-larger archetypal
pattern, similar to Jung's archetype of wholeness, the Self. Jung saw the totality of the
Self as the central archetype of order in the psyche, the formative principle of
individuation.

Individuation itself is also an archetypal process, and though it differs from person to
person, there are common elements that comprise the archetypal pattern. The process
of individuation mirrors the unfolding of the chakras, where we reclaim the shadow,
establish our autonomy, integrate our anima and animus, express our individuality,
recognize our archetypal influences, and integrate all these elements into a greater
wholeness. To recognize an archetypal energy is to recognize its pattern and meaning,
and then guide ourselves accordingly. To recognize the pattern of individuation (or
chakra unfolding) as it occurs in our lives allows us to see where we are, where we are
heading, and what we need to do to get there. Thus insight directs action.

7
6
5
4

3
2
1

Sage/Master

Artist

Healer

Hero

Lover

Earth Mother/Provider

Figure 6.1. Archetypes of the Chakras
In the sixth chakra we move into our archetypal identity. This identity is gained through
the recognition of images and symbols that appear in our lives through dreams,
imagination, art, relationships, or situations. Recognizing the archetypal significance of
these symbols brings us into a larger spiritual framework. We enter a broader context of
understanding, and a deeper recognition of who we are and what our purpose is. This is
the essential work of developing our archetypal identity.

Alexandra was having difficulty dealing with the loss of vitality and libido that sometimes
accompanies menopause. She continually felt like she was "dying" and gradually
withdrew from her outer life. When I compared her process to the archetypal
experience of journeying to the Underworld — the mythical land of death and rebirth, as
represented by the Greek myth of Persephone, or the Sumerian myth of Inanna — it
made it easier for her to cope. She could give her experience a meaning beyond her
immediate suffering. She could accept it as an inward journey that had a beginning, an
end, and a sacred purpose, as part of the quest for deeper wholeness and Self-
reclamation.

The unconscious, as the totality of all archetypes, is the deposit of all human experience
right back to its remotest beginnings. Not, indeed, a dead deposit, a sort of abandonee
')bish heap, but a living system of reactions and aptitudes that determine
's life in invisible ways. Archetypes are simply the forms which the instir

Dned

Since the archetypes are embedded in a larger field, they carry a numinous energy.
When we encounter them, we may feel a strong psychic charge, imbuing everything
around us with great significance. They also carry a meaning and a purpose that
dictates smaller details within. If we see in ourselves the archetype of a Teacher,
Healer, Mother, Father, or Artist, we are gaining, with that recognition, an inherent set of

instructions and energy. Although some of those instructions may direct us to more
information, it is the archetype itself that really directs us. A pregnant woman, knowing
she is going to be a mother, reads books on raising children, or takes birthing classes.
She also has within her certain instinctual responses toward mothering that appear on
their own when she gives birth. A healer trains himself in his disciplines, finds others in
his trade, and seeks out those in need. But the healer also has a certain innate sense of
health and disease and an attraction to the art that may be recognized throughout his
life. A visual artist sees the world in terms of color and shadow, shape and composition,
using her creative identity to make archetypal statements with her art. The instructions
embedded within an archetypal energy not only give us meaning, but also direction.
The archetypal identity we acquire at this level becomes, for better or worse, a mode of
perception. The healer and the artist look for different details in the same situation. We
might ask then, is the archetype not just another illusion or distortion of our ability to
truly see? It can be, but in recognizing the archetype, it becomes possible to recognize
the filter as well and correct our perceptions accordingly. Knowing that I overidentify
with the positive aspects of the Mother archetype, I can see the denial of my own
shadow; I can recognize the program that says I have to be there all the time for each
and every demand. I have a name for it, a way of perceiving it, a means for
understanding. I can trace its meaning through my past to my own mother, to her
mother, and on back through time. In the recognition of my archetypal influences, I am
freer to create new behavior; without recognition, I am not even aware that I am making
choices — my current behavior seems the only option.

Knowing our archetypal influences helps clarify our modes of perception. It clarifies our
purpose in life and attracts the things we need in order to fulfill that purpose. It also
keeps us from being unconsciously ruled by the archetype, and makes its energy
available to us for our growth. The archetype then becomes an ally rather than an
invisible dictator.

Unconscious subroutines in our behavior and belief systems are fueled by archetypal
energies. Jung called these subroutines complexes. They are the things we habitually
do or think even though we may know better, such as compulsively going off our diet
time and again, being hurtfully critical of our children, sabotaging our relationships when
they are going well, or avoiding success when it is just around the corner. Complexes
are always formed around an archetypal matrix, and becoming aware of this matrix
helps us break the cycle.

William found that even after he realized he had been following an image, he could not
let go of his perfectionism. Intellectually, he could see that it was not necessary to
maintain the image, but emotionally he was terrified to let go of it. As a Rigid/Achiever,
he carried a deep need to impress his father. Even though his father was no longer
living, the archetypal Father energy within his psyche still drove his feelings and
behavior. As he individuated from his actual father, and claimed his own expression of
the Father archetype, he could loosen his father's rigid influence on his behavior.
The archetypal level is simultaneously immanent and transcendent. It is immanent when
we experience it as something inside that we bring forth from within ourselves. Even if
we do not recognize an archetype, it can still be a constellating force in our behavior. A
wife who unconsciously resonates with the archetype of the Lover may repeatedly have
affairs on the side. The archetypal Artist is often miserable in a structured job. A
childless woman possessed by the Mother archetype will continually take care of others
even to her own detriment. Bringing our archetype to consciousness helps us embrace
its energy in a conscious way.

An archetype is transcendent in that it resonates with a larger meta-structure, similar to
the way our bodies are embedded in the physical world. We are not the only healer in
the world as the tradition of healers goes back to the beginning of human life. We are

not the first to become a father. Our image of Father, from our own father to all the
fathers we have known through friends, movies, and literature, brings us information
about how to be a father. The archetype of the Mother exists all around us, from the
ancient goddesses to women comparing detergent on television commercials. An
archetype has many forms of manifestation, but behind each is a common concept.
The archetype is transcendent because it is bigger than we are. It is immanent because
it is an element of who we are — yet only one element, as we may embody several
archetypes at once. We may be both Artist and Father, Trickster and Lover, Mother and
Child. Archetypes may fight within us as the perpetual child fights the responsibilities of
parenthood or as the Lover who desires connection fights with the Hermit who wants to
be alone. In these apparent contradictions, it is important to find a way to honor each of
the archetypal energies that cry for recognition. Rejecting them only sends them to the
shadow realm where we energize the archetype's negative side. Then the Good Mother
becomes the Bad Mother, angry and resentful of her children if she does not get the
freedom she needs. The Lover becomes distant and moody if he does not get the time
alone that he needs.

Archetypal energies are found at the core of all mythology and religion. Imbued with a
powerful energy that resonates deep in our psyches, embracing the archetype is a
spiritual experience, and opens us up to the spiritual states associated with the upper
chakras. Christ, Buddha, and Pan, Aphrodite, Isis, and Mother Mary — all are archetypal
principles that resonate not only with the forces of nature around us, but also with deep
elements of our own psyche. In this resonance, the archetype holds great power. Over
time, archetypes get invested with collective psychic energy, and strongly influence the
culture.

Our best access to archetypal understanding and to the development of our archetypal
identity is through the awareness and integration of symbols.
Image as Symbol

Archetype is concentrated psychic energy and symbol provides the mode of
manifestation by which the archetype becomes discernible. We can never encounter
archety

We enter the symbolic realm as we move above the heart chakra. Our language is
made of sound symbols and our letters represent those sounds. In the visual realm,
symbols speak to us as representations of powerful archetypal energies. We see them
in our fantasies and dreams, we wear them in our jewelry, scribble them on our notes,
and use them in our logos. Symbols are an immediate, whole-brain way of
communicating about deep archetypal energies.

Symbols are the means through which the mind perceives archetypal energy. Likewise,
archetypes, which are by definition nonphysical templates for psychic energy, become
integrated into consciousness through symbols.

Symbols emerge when we recognize a pattern. Spirit does not always speak to us in
verbal language but has a more archetypal language spoken through symbols. If we are
to develop an archetypal identity, then we must learn the language of symbols.
Symbols emerge from the unconscious through dreams and fantasies, creation of art,
and chance encounters. As I began work on this chapter, I started a period of
purification where I cleared interruptions and stepped up some of my spiritual practices.
Two days later I found a complete, five-foot snake skin at the edge of my garden which
confirmed that I was, indeed, shedding my old skin in the service of transformation. The
fact that it appeared in my garden — a place where I cultivate the growing of
things — brought me another symbol to contemplate. What do I want to cultivate in my
life? What have I cultivated in the past that I want to leave behind? When snakes first
begin to shed their skin, there is a period when it slides over their eyes and they are

unable to see very well. Once the skin has been shed, a new clarity returns. This
reflected the period I had just gone through, where I was unsure of my voice and
anxiously seeking my clarity. Finally, the snake is a symbol of the Kundalini energy that
runs through the chakras, and as I enter the final chapters of this book, my internal
Kundalini is entering a new level. The skin now sits on my personal altar, which displays
many symbols of things I want to honor and bring into my life.

This is a small example of how to work with symbols that appear in life. The most potent

source of these symbols is our dreams.

Dreams

Dreams link the conscious and unconscious mind. Thus they link the lower and upper
chakras, which are crucial both to our awakening as conscious individuals and to the
connection of that consciousness with the dynamic ground of Earth and Nature.
The whole creation is essentially subjective, and the dream is the theater where the
dreamer is at once scene, actor, prompter, stage, manager, author, audiences, and
critic.

C. G.JUNG

Dreams speak to us in the symbolic mode of the upper chakras, but what they
symbolize is the connection between our "lower" processes (instincts, feelings, and
impulses) and the larger archetypal world of spirit. Dreams unlock the mystery that
unites soul and spirit, individual and universal, into a dynamic and synthesized whole.
They are a sixth chakra contribution to the goal of realization, which will comprise our
final step on the Rainbow Bridge.

Dreams present alternatives to ordinary reality. In order to have vision, imagination,
clairvoyance, and insight, we need to be able to think in new and creative ways. Dreams
open the way for us to see things in a new light, revealing hidden feelings and
understandings, desires and needs, rejected selves, unused talents, and missing pieces
of our wholeness. They are often profoundly irrational images that uproot the conscious
mind and open it to something larger.

Dreams often bring us answers to problems that our conscious mind could not solve
and so become powerful spiritual teachers. Many scientific and technological
discoveries are made through dreams, where answers to problems appear in symbolic
form. Mendeleyev conceived of the periodic table of the elements in an afternoon dream
he had after falling asleep to the precise arrangement of chamber music. Neils Bohr
dreamed of race horses traveling on a track and was inspired to build his model of the
atom with orderly orbits of subatomic particles. The invention of the sewing machine
was crystallized by a dream where cannibals poked its inventor with spears that had
holes in the points, bringing the essential key that had eluded inventors for fifty years. 2
Dreams are representations of our inner world as it struggles with the demands of the

outer one.

The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recess of the soul,
opening into that cosmic night which was psyche long before there was any ego
consciousness, and which will remain psyche no matter how far our ego consciousness
may extend. All consciousness separates; but in dreams we put on the likeness of that
more universal, truer, more eternal man dwelling in the darkness of primordial night.
There he is still the whole, and the whole is in him, indistinguishable from nature and
bare of all egohood.

C. G. JUNG

Dreams are the psyche's way of maintaining homeostasis — of compensating for the
lack of balance as we adjust our lives to external realities. They communicate essential
information to the conscious mind about our health, relationships, work, growth, and
almost any other area in which we might inquire. Jeremy Taylor tells the story of a
woman, Barbara, who dreamed she opened a purse that was full of rotting meat. Her

dream group worried that the purse represented her uterus and that she might have
cancer. With no prior physical symptoms, the dream image resonated enough to make
her go in for a checkup. The first one revealed nothing, but egged on by the dream she
sought another opinion. She did, indeed, have cancer, and was able to remedy the
situation just in time. Had she waited any longer, she was told it would have been too
late.3

Dreams are a primary experience of transcendent consciousness. In dreams, there is
no linear time or limitation to logical space. We can fly upside down, or can be on a
mountain one minute and in the office the next. Dreams take us beyond the limits of the
body, where physical ability is no longer a consideration. Dreams may also bring us
into the body, by giving us symbolic information about its needs or by allowing us to
practice movements and feelings that are denied our body in waking life. Thus dreams
are an essential link between somatic and transcendent experience.
Dreams have fascinated philosophers and psychologists for millennia. As a healing
force for the evolution of consciousness, they will be explored again when I talk about
healing through the sixth chakra. In order to understand dreams, we must be able to
embrace symbols as representations of archetypal energy and use our intuition to find
their meaning.
Iniuition

Intuition is a leap toward wholeness from fragmentation.

Intuition is the unconscious recognition of pattern. It is one of the four functions of
Jungian typology (the others being sensation and feeling, related to the first two
chakras, and thinking, which relates to chakra seven). Intuition, like energy in the lower
chakras, is basically passive. Those who try to force intuition know full well it does not
behave according to will, but rather by a process of openness and receptivity.
The development of intuition enhances our psychic abilities and is a central function of
chakra six. If we are shut off from our unconscious process and live almost entirely in
our conscious mind, then our intuition will be undeveloped and become what Jung calls
an inferior function. Without intuition, we cannot grasp the whole or the essence of
something. We cannot surrender to the resonance of a more immediate truth and
understanding than that which is available to us through the rational, conscious mind.
Since intuition is passive, it requires surrender, just as opening to the elements of earth
and water requires a surrender to gravity and flow. We need intuition to embrace the
mystery that opens us to the larger, cosmic world.

We live in a culture that favors logic over intuition. As children, we are not taught to
value our intuition and our hunches are often discounted if we cannot logically defend
our reasoning. As a result we often discount our own hunches because we do not
believe we could actually know things through nonlogical means. This internal
invalidation suppresses our psychic abilities.

The rational mind (from ratio, "to count") thinks in pieces. One piece follows another,
leading us logically from one thought to the next. While the rational mind may
synthesize a whole from its individual pieces, it is poorly suited for grasping larger
wholes on an immediate, experiential level. To grasp concepts of cosmic and
transcendent consciousness — the realms associated with the upper chakras — we must
have a more direct means of perception. This is the purpose of intuition.
Sri Aurobindo has described intuition as the flash of a match in the darkness.4 For one
brief moment, the whole room comes to light. We can see its size and shape and the
furniture and objects within it as an immediate whole experience. The flash of intuition is
a momentary illumination of the psyche that reveals its underlying wholeness. As we
grow in awareness (especially through meditation practices), we learn to sustain these
illuminated moments for longer and longer periods.
CLAIRVOYANCE

Sixth chakra development opens us to the possibilities of clairvoyance, which means
"clear seeing." Clairvoyance opens inner sight to nonphysical planes, allowing us to see
auras and chakras, past and future events. It begins with the development of intuition,
and is a matter of learning to focus internal attention on something long enough to
illuminate its patterns. As we gain awareness of our own conscious process, we gain
the ability to focus that awareness where we choose. Once we find our own light, we

can shine that light on whatever we wish to see.

The body itself is a screen to shield and partially reveal the light that's blazing inside
your presence.

RUMI

Spiritual growth often requires us to break free of established patterns. This can be
frightening — so frightening, in fact, that many people never attempt it at all, preferring
instead to cling to the familiar realms of the lower chakras. How do we maintain our
ground in the face of the unknown territory of transformation? We rely on intuition.
Intuition then becomes the ground of the transpersonal psyche. It makes the unknown
knowable.

Clairvoyance, like intuition, is developed through a conscious surrender to the
unconscious mind. We must let go of preconceived notions and allow the integrating
power of the Self to move us toward wholeness. Developing clairvoyance requires trust,
practice, opening to the inner feelings, voices, and images that come unbidden into our
consciousness.

TrAN8COPENT FUNCTION

For in transcending the opposites by uniting them in himself, the symbol maintains
psychic life in a constant flux and carries it onward toward its destined goal. Tension
and release — as an expression of the living movement of the psychic process — are
enabled to alternate in a constant rhythm.

JOLANDE JACOBI

It is important at this point to take another look at our chakra structure and see where
we are. As we pass the neck and enter the head, we transcend the physical world of
time and space and enter the nonphysical, symbolic realm of the mind. Chakras six and
seven together correspond to the areas that Jung called the supra conscious, or that
others have called transcendent, transpersonal, or cosmic consciousness.
The lower two chakras were the realm of instincts and the unconscious mind, which
flowed with gravity according to their own nature. At chakra three we awakened to an
egoic consciousness — a sense of separate self with a will to resist or direct the
instinctual flow. Chakras three, four, and five are largely run by that egoic
consciousness as it interacts with the outer world and integrates experience on the
inner planes (see Figure 0.8).

The realm of transpersonal consciousness is a realm that is beyond both ego and
instincts yet reflects and combines both. In this reflection we can see that chakras six
and seven are the mental mirrors of the lower and middle realms, respectively. Chakra
six symbolically reflects the unconscious while chakra seven is the realm of conscious
understanding. Chakra seven is the central processing unit (CPU) that finds meaning in
the images chakra six brings forth from the lower realms, and incorporates them into an
ever-growing body of understanding.

The ancient tantric texts that depict the chakras show their major nadis (channels of
energy) as figure eight patterns that wrap around the chakras. The two nadis, Ida and
Pingala — said to be the polar opposites, solar and lunar, masculine and
feminine — begin at the first chakra and meet again at the sixth, polarizing each of the
chakras in between and contributing to their spin (see figure 6.2). The fact that they
meet in chakra six tells us that both dualities are present and united before the energy
moves to the transcendent, nondualistic nature of the crown chakra. Therefore, chakra

six is the ground in which dualities meet and become transformed. Among these are the
dualities of conscious and unconscious.

7

The Ida and Pingala
ascend and descend
in a spiral pattern,
contributing to the
chakras ' spin. The
Sushumna travels
up the center.

Figure 6.2. The Chakras and Their Major Nadis: Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna
Since the upper two chakras are associated with the realm of transcendent
consciousness, they transcend the limitations of time and space (so important to the
body) and their scope moves beyond the purely personal to a more universal, cosmic
realm where awareness fuses diverse elements of experience into a unified whole.
Transcendent function is a term used by Jung to describe the psyche's ability to
reconcile and synthesize opposites through the use of symbols. When this occurs we
have a transformation of attitude. We move from a smaller place of either-or — in which
there is internal conflict, contradiction, and repression — to a larger perspective that
widens our vision. In technical terms, the purpose of the transcendent function is "to
resolve the thesis of pure nature and its antithesis of the opposing ego into the
synthesis of conscious nature."5 In other words, we resolve the struggle between the
conscious ego and the repressed instincts by a synthesis that includes both. Once
resolution has occurred, we can use the energy of our instincts consciously and
harmoniously, and stop being used by them. The transcendent function, therefore, is
less a function of rising above our conflicts, than of coming to a perception in which
those conflicts resolve into complementary aspects of our wholeness.
The transcendent function combines the unconscious aspects of the lower chakras with
a vision of wholeness that can be embraced by the conscious mind, and hence the
entire Self. It brings us to an entirely new vista — an emergence into a larger sphere of
understanding. It is the final step in the individuation process (if, indeed, individuation is
ever finalized). It is our gateway to the final step across the bridge — the gateway to self-
reflection and self-knowledge.

Just as mantras were the focusing device of the fifth chakra, symbols are that of the
sixth — most specifically the symbol of the mandala. Yogis sometimes practice yantra
yoga, the yoga of meditating upon a symbol or mandala as a way of focusing the mind
into clarity. Jung interpreted the appearance of mandalas in dreams as resolutions of
opposites and symbols of wholeness.

As consciousness integrates more and more of its elements into a pattern of wholeness,

the balance of opposites within takes its place around the Self as center, rather than the
ego. The instincts are the center of the unconscious, and the ego is the center of the
conscious mind, but the Self is the archetypal mystery that is at the center of the whole
being. It is not a point, not a thing, not a place — but the cohesive force of wholeness,
drawing together its various essential parts, much as the sun holds the planets in their
orbits.

Jung says, "With the birth of the symbol, the regression of the libido into the
unconscious ceases. Regression changes into progression, blockage gives way to
flowing, and the pull of the primordial abyss is broken. "6 In the creation of the mediating
symbol, our major polarities finally crystallize into understanding and lead us into
conscious realization.
Vision

The final outcome of working through the sixth chakra — with its archetypes and images,
dreams and fantasies, symbols and illusions — is the emergence of a personal vision. As
we see more and more of ourselves, we see more deeply into people and situations
around us. As we expand our internal picture into a larger, more comprehensive
worldview, we inevitably begin to create a vision. This vision can address world
problems and how they might be changed for the better, or it may only address
something within our own lives. It may be as large as a vision to create a new society,
or as focused as one about relating to our spouse differently. It is not the size or scope
of the vision that is important, but the ability to see a new way of being.
We participate in the forming of the future by virtue of our capacity to conceive of and
respond to new possibilities, and to bring them out of imagination and try them in
actuality.

ROLLO MAY

Vision uses imagination to create something that has never been seen before. Its
image, held in our mind, becomes the blueprint for our construction of reality. It
becomes the new picture, the new stained glass window, through which the light of our
consciousness will shine. The inner vision is the strange attractor that shapes the
chaotic fluctuations of our lives.

What's the difference between vision, a positive aspect of chakra six, and illusion, its
demon? Both are pictures held in the mind, and both shape our behavior. But vision
leads us forward and illusion holds us back. A vision is a possibility, a goal to inspire us,
constantly changing and evolving. We know a vision isn't real, and yet we believe in its
potential. An illusion tends to be held as a certainty and forced into place — something
we believe is real and unchangeable. An illusion binds the energy; a vision consciously
directs it.

It takes vision to rebuild our Rainbow Bridge, to lead a life rich with meaning and
purpose. It takes vision, both personal and collective, to change the many dysfunctional
aspects of our world that keep us enmeshed, trapped, and disengaged. Vision is an
essential part of the healing process.

No matter how abstract or specific our vision is, it can only begin with changes we make
in our own lives. To create change, we need to be able to imagine it. We need an
image, symbol, or sign that can steer the psychic energy of consciousness and activity
toward a new manifestation. We need a shaper of reality — a goal for the future that
draws forth its needs from the present. With this image in consciousness, the unformed
chaos of our lives takes shape.

With the healing of the sixth chakra, we are able to create vision. We are able to form,
consciously, the path to the future and liberate ourselves from the grips of the past. Our
vision makes the difference.

GROWING THE LOTUS

Developmental Formation of the Sixth Chakraata Glance

AGE
Adolescence

TASKS
Independence
Originality
NEEDS AND ISSUES
Self-reflection
Freedom and responsibility
Identity vs. role confusion

in's need to understand the world and his experience in it symbolically as well as
ilistically may be noted early in the lives of many children.... It is the root of all
ativity ... fed ... by the power of initially imperceptible archetypes, working from out
the depths of the psyche and creating the realm of the spiritual.

A

child's imagination is almost constantly engaged. Uncluttered from fixed knowledge

about the way things are, their imagination is free to explore new possibilities. In their
innocence, children often see clearly to the heart of things, free from the illusions of how
things "should be," freer to perceive them as they are. The innumerable "what ifs" that
delight childhood curiosity openly explore possibilities as they try to decipher the
patterns that influence their lives. This is spirit moving toward its natural goal of
liberation and understanding. It is essential to support this imaginative creativity if the
child is to remain open to the expansion of his or her own spirit.

Pattern recognition is a skill that develops throughout life. From the recognition of
mother's face to the trancelike dance of family roles, the assimilation of patterns moves
from the simple to the complex. Each pattern perceived tells us something about
ourselves, and something about the world around us. Each piece becomes part of the
inner matrix of understanding that is constantly forming as we learn and grow. This is an
innate process of human consciousness that is always engaged at some level.
So what marks the specific development of the sixth chakra? — the ability to think
symbolically and abstractly. For Piaget, this is the period of formal operations (age
twelve and up), where a child becomes more concerned with form than content, and
where he begins to think like a scientist, to reason and philosophize about his life. At
this stage a child can reason about something he has not actually experienced. He can
live in the symbolic realm.

This awakening occurs when we realize that all that we perceive is not necessarily
about us — and there are greater patterns beyond the high school social club, the family,
or even the community. Strangely enough, this also creates a need to further define
oneself as we adjust our ego to this larger vista and to the adolescent's rapidly changing
physical body. It seems that the further the child can reach beyond himself, the more
uncertain he becomes about his own identity.

Erikson marks adolescence as the stage where identity vs. role confusion becomes
the dominant concern. At this time, there is an increased search for a meaningful
personal identity, because, as we all know, the one Mom, Dad, or society have crafted

is usually unacceptable. A meaningful personal identity at this stage needs to have epic
proportions — it needs to resonate with the Self in a powerful way, and take that Self
someplace larger. It needs to give direction to the powerful surge of energy that occurs
when physical growth tapers off and sexual energy ripens. The energy previously used
by the organism for physical growth that does not express itself sexually now moves
into mental development.

In the search for a meaningful identity, we often see adolescents engage in a kind of
archetypal hero worship. Boys worship baseball stars or archetypal figures from movies,
such as Batman, Jean Luc Picard, or Rambo. They dye their hair orange and comb it
into spikes, shave their heads, or pierce various parts of their anatomy, depending on
the trend at the time. Young girls model themselves after fashion models, fantasize
about marrying movie stars, or imitate hard-line feminists. They try on different roles as
if they were auditioning for a play, and indeed they are, for the next stage of life is
beckoning and it seems we can only be a part of it if we identify which role to play.
It is unfortunate that in this culture the search for personal meaning in terms of
archetypes has become so crass. Our children, robbed of the rich archetypal heritage of
mythology, are left to find their models from MTV. Rambo has replaced the mythic Hero
and Barbie dolls, the spirit of Aphrodite. The entry of the adolescent into the larger
community takes place at the mall, while school curricula remain unimaginatively fixated
on a rational mode of thinking that does not allow for new identities.
Still, the archetypes parade through. Luke Skywalker meets his archetypal teacher,
Yoda, and transforms the dark side of his father. Frodo, in Lord of the Rings, inspires
pursuit of the Hero's Quest. These archetypal dramas have a marked impact on the
creation of identity in the adolescent even if their symbolism is not consciously
understood. As Erikson has said, "In searching for the social values which guide
identity, one therefore confronts the problems of ideology and aristocracy.... In order
not to become cynically or apathetically lost, young people must somehow be able to
convince themselves that those who succeed in their anticipated adult world thereby
shoulder the obligation of being the best."7

As imagination constitutes a major petal in the sixth chakra, the adolescent often scoffs
at the older generation's lack of imagination. When mental apparatus opens with an
explosion of imagination, Mom and Dad indeed seem pretty square. Never mind that
they may have already tried all the things the adolescent finds so new and exciting — the
old ways seem much too constricting for the youth as their sixth chakra awakens. They
must experiment with their widening realm of possibility.

It may seem contradictory that the persona is initially formed at the fourth chakra stage
and yet personal identity becomes so important again in chakra six. But there is a big
difference between them. In the fourth chakra, we form our social personality relatively
unconsciously. We imitate what we see around us, we adapt and conform. We do what
works — what gets us love and approval. We are not aware of the range of choices that
are possible.

During the peak of adolescence there is a reevaluation of the adopted persona.
Suddenly there is a wider range to choose from, and we have creativity from chakra five
to help us. This time the choice is relatively conscious. It is less likely to be about-
pleasing parents and more about one's identity with peers and cultural icons. It is more
future oriented — changing who we have been to who we want to become. The new
identity must have some kind of meaning. The search for this meaning leads us to the
seventh chakra.
Adult Development

In the adult, the awakening of symbolic communication and the embracing of one's
archetypal identity usually occur after a midlife crisis (if not in adolescence). Previously
adopted roles no longer satisfy and their dissolution plunges us into unknown depths

where clarity and certainty are nonexistent. Attachment to a previous identity may have
denied other important aspects of ourselves that now taunt us in our dreams and
fantasies and force us to open to a larger possibility of being.

Sixth chakra development is usually referred to as spiritual awakening. We suddenly
see with new eyes, experience profound insight, change our perspective and attitude, or
receive a vision. It can happen at any time in life, but like the light of most dawns, it is
often preceded by darkness. It is darkness that makes us reach into the depths of our
soul beyond where we have been before, in order to create a new reality. It is always
darkest before the dawn.

TRAUMAS AND ABUSES

t is only by the distinct power of the intellect that we speak of visualization as

something separate from the rest of experience. In truth, our visual process is directly
linked with what we feel, think, and express. Seeing something out of the corner of our
eye will make us jump or catch our breath. Alluring images can stimulate sexual
arousal. Violent images might make us feel nauseous or frightened.
If visual memory is so linked with our somatic experience, then it follows that abuses to
any of the chakras — to the body, the emotions, one's autonomy, one's heart, or the
freedom of expression — will affect the opening of the sixth chakra as well. This is the
library where we store the images that link with experience. If it is full of negative
experiences, then we may unconsciously censor parts of the library.
If the feelings associated with an image or memory are unpleasant, there are only two
ways to avoid those feelings: We can either repress the memory or we can dissociate
from it. In repression, we close down our perceptive abilities and put blinders on the
range of what we see. In dissociation, we inhibit our ability to make sense of the images
we see — we strip them of their meaning and value, while our unconscious reactions
continue disconnected from any conscious understanding.

Being simultaneously present with body-feelings, visual pictures are found welded with
somatic states. Retaining and reproducing a visual picture, therefore, means retaining
and reproducing a body-state.

AKHTER AHSEN

Sandra's father repeatedly beat her mother, and Sandra herself was often verbally
threatened. Witnessing the violence was enough to convince her to behave flawlessly in
order to stay out of trouble. Yet as she witnessed the blows, her own body experienced
fear and helplessness. She could not trust her father in his rage, nor could she trust her
mother to defend her if the need arose, as her mother obviously failed to defend herself.
Sandra was dependent on them for support and this produced an unbearable
contradiction. Since this kind of fear energizes the body for action, yet there was no
permissible action she could take, Sandra could only maintain psychic equilibrium by
pretending not to see it. She repressed the memory. She instead remembered her
father as loving and kind. As an adult, when her husband became violent with her
teenage daughter, she failed to take action. When the abuse was later reported by a
neighbor, Sandra remained mystified and defensive, emphatically arguing in her
husband's defense about what a good man he was and how he loved his daughter.
While there may have been elements of his love that were indeed there, she could not
see the reality before her. She could not separate the love from the abuse, and instead
saw and defended her own illusion.

The memory of her father was quite active, buried in Sandra's psyche. She was plagued
by dreams of being chased by dark figures and her body was contracted and small, her

voice timid. Her brow was furrowed around the sixth chakra, and she had worn thick
glasses since early grammar school. In most respects, she was the ideal mother, doing
everything she could for her daughter. But she had closed down a portion of her
psyche, which kept her from seeing clearly and from recognizing an important pattern
pertinent to her daughter's well-being.

Tom, on the other hand, reported horrendous memories from his childhood as if he were
rattling off a laundry list, with obvious dissociation. Tom was highly creative, artistic,
and elegant, but had a streak of coldness in his relationships that made one shudder.
He failed to understand why his successive partners were always angry with him — he
was unaware of the effect his words and actions had on a person, and instead faulted
his partners' emotional weakness. His pattern in relationship persisted unacknowledged
and unchanged. He could not "see" what he could not feel.

With repressed memories, we close down our sixth chakra, making it deficient. With
dissociation, we lose our ground and the sixth chakra becomes excessive — bombarded
with images that clutter up the psyche but never reach understanding.
An environment with daily scenes of suffering makes us close down our sixth chakra,
and can even diminish the ability to see with our physical eyes. If someone has worn
glasses since childhood, it can be worthwhile to explore what was going on in the family
when the vision problems first developed. What was it they did not want to see? What
was the contradiction? What is the illusion they carried away with them, and what might
be the underlying truth?

There are also times when a child is told she did not see what she thought she saw.
"Daddy's not drunk on the couch, he's just tired." "Mommy isn't upset with you, she's
just having a bad day." "We're a very happy family and we all love each other very
much." These are the kind of illusions that get stated verbally or are acted out by the
family in their daily drama. Since contradiction is so difficult for the young child to live
with, it is easier for her to deny her own perception.

In the recovery process, John Bradshaw talks about "moving from the illusion of
certainty to the certainty of illusion. "8 Falsely remembering our past as safe and secure
might be an illusion of certainty. When we really look back at the events accurately, we
often see that this was most certainly an illusion. At this point, there is an awakening of
clarity that allows us to see many things about our life from a new perspective.
Children are naturally sensitive. In the absence of direct knowledge, they rely on their
intuition to assess a situation. A child may sense family secrets, but with no data to back
it up she starts to distrust her intuition. As a result, it does not develop as much as other
functions.
Shame

Shame produces intense self-scrutiny. Shame-based people feel compelled to look and
perform as perfectly as possible at all times. As a result, the vision is turned inward in a
paralyzing cycle of self-monitoring and is less available for looking outward. When the
eyes do look outward, they often look for clues as to how we're doing, what's wanted of
us, whether we're safe. When this self-scrutiny program is lodged in the sixth chakra, it
takes up most of the chakra's "disk" space, blocking new information.
In addition, severely shame-based people cannot look you in the eye. When the self is
considered basically flawed, we shield our eyes to prevent anyone from seeing in, as if
they might see our own negative, internalized images. If we cannot meet another's
eyes, we can neither see nor be seen accurately. We close the blinds on this essential
window to the soul and become psychologically blind as well.

EXCESS AND DEFICIENCY

Deficiency

If the sixth chakra becomes deficient, then its associated faculties remain undeveloped.
There is poor intuitive ability, often with a compensating focus on the rational thought

process. The person may seem psychically insensitive or "head-blind." This is the
dinner guest who doesn't notice that his hosts are looking at their watches and clearing
their throats, hinting that it's time to leave. This is the man who wants a date but cannot
ask, and fails to see that the woman next to him is actually flirting. When head-blind, we
fail to notice the subtle nuances of mood, often including our own. We might not notice
until far too late that we had an intuition that something might not work out. With a
deficient sixth chakra, we miss the subtleties of our own process (see figure 6.3).
What is to give light must first endure burning.

VICTOR FRANKL

If memory is poor in general, then the sixth chakra may have been closed down for
protection. In this case, there may be some repressed memory, and the effort to keep it
buried uses up a good portion of the chakra's storage capacity.

People with sixth chakra deficiency have difficulty visualizing or imagining things
differently. They cannot imagine what the living room would look like painted blue,
cannot imagine life other than the way it is, and cannot imagine themselves behaving
differently. This person may say, "That's just the way I am," and leave it at that. Difficulty
with visualization is also frustrating when trying to follow guided meditations or creative
visualizations. Such people will often avoid techniques that employ such practices. If we
cannot imagine change, it is less likely to occur.

When contents of the unconscious are repressed, it may be difficult to remember one's
dreams. We may think we have no dreams (when, in actuality, everyone dreams each
night) or we may be unable to retain our dreams in waking consciousness.
Unfortunately, this cuts off an important key to accessing the deeper self. This may be
due to a sixth chakra deficiency, or it may simply be that the person is using the sixth
chakra so much in their waking life that it is less active at night.

If there is difficulty visualizing, imagining, or dreaming, there is more likely to be a strong
belief that we see "the one true, right, and only way." Monopolarization refers to the
state of mind that cannot see the other side. Unable to imagine differences, we must
deny or invalidate them. This produces a spiritually closed mind that prefers to remain in
the familiar rather than expand into the unknown. If the lower chakras have not provided
the security needed to let go, we prefer to stay within the range of the familiar.
Of course, much of what we refuse to see comes under the heading of denial. Denial
insists that something does not exist — that we do not have a drinking problem, that we
are not overly attached to our relationship, that we are happy when we are not, or that
the world has no environmental problems. Denial is both personal and collective. In
denial we are held by the demon of illusion — held in a fantasy world that keeps us from
having to take action in our lives.
Excess

When the image or memory of an event is disconnected from the rest of experience, the
energy that is split off is invested in an image. When numerous dissociated images do
not get grounded in experience, an excessive condition develops in the sixth chakra.
These elements may haunt the person in dreams, appear as obsessive fantasies, or
become full-blown delusions or hallucinations. This can run the gamut from mild
neurotic annoyance to full-blown psychosis (see figure 6.3).

Such people appear to be laboring under the burden of too much psychic input. They
will come up and tell you, often with wild darting eyes, what everyone is thinking about
them or that certain events will happen. They may have many visions, but their visions
are farsighted, blind to the realities close at hand. This is the person who is going to
make a fortune with their new project when they can't even pay this month's rent, or the
one who is already fantasizing about their wedding with a person they've only dated a
few times. I call it "vision blindness," as if the image they see blinds them to everything
else.

Excess energy in the sixth chakra happens when energy is withdrawn from the lower
chakras. Without the grounding that brings limitation and simplicity, a person can get
lost in the boundlessness of the upper chakras and have no way to sort it out. They may
overidentify with archetypal energies and have too little personal ego to balance it. One
may think they are Jesus, Cleopatra, or the next president, but have little awareness of
their effect on their closest friends. The archetypal fantasies are used to buffer the weak
ego and bring feelings of importance and power. They may discover some element of
their past lives, and then attribute every current problem to unresolved issues from this
memory. "I don't get along with Sarah because she was my mother in a past life and
tried to kill me because she had too many children." (These fantasies may, however,
reveal elements of the current issue.)

As I do psychic readings in my own work, I am constantly amazed and shocked by the
power some people give to a psychic reader. I am usually tipped off to a sixth chakra
excess when the person sits down and tells me with wide-eyed seriousness every detail
of a former reading as if it were gospel. The sixth chakra is wide open, without
discernment or discrimination. It is important to remain open to psychic, nonrational
input, but equally important to rationally sort through it. Lack of discernment reveals
poor sixth chakra boundaries, which allow it to become overloaded.
This is not to deny the possible value of intuition, past life memories, precognition,
telepathy, or any other psychic arts. With sixth chakra excess, however, the ability to
discern truth from fantasy becomes impaired. The universality of the sixth chakra opens
to the vastness on the astral plane where anything goes without the testing ground of
the lower chakras. This is a dangerous state.

The absence of energy in the lower chakras makes it easy to come and go from the
body and so this person may indeed be receiving psychic input. This does not mean
that all their input is accurate however, or that the perceived patterns are getting
integrated into consciousness. Such people can often become "channelers," people
who have the ability to leave their body and let other entities come through them.
Opinions on the value of channeling vary from person to person. Whether the
information channeled is from a separate, discorporate entity, one's unconscious or
higher self, or subject to the whim of the imagination, there is no doubt that in some
cases, accurate information can come through. There is also no doubt that inaccurate
information can come through. As with any psychic activity, there must be a testing
ground that sorts through what is said with discrimination. The excessive sixth chakra

Deficiency

An excessive boundary keeps one from seeing
out. Self-reflection is very narrow and egotisti-
cal.

Figure 6.3. Sixth Chakra Excess and Deficiency

wants to bypass this process.

When one is bombarded by psychic input, it is difficult to concentrate. Intrusive
elements distract us when we are trying to think clearly, and they may be accompanied
by anxiety, which makes it difficult to sit still and let the mind settle. There is a classic
metaphor that describes meditation as analogous to letting a muddy glass of water sit
still long enough to let the mud settle and the water become clear. In this analogy, the
excessive sixth chakra person is one who cannot afford to let the mud settle. If it did, it
might reveal whatever they are trying to repress. Unable to settle, they are unable to
ground and so the psychic energy remains in the upper chakras, looping through the
infinite realm of imagination.

Having an excessive sixth chakra does not necessarily mean that one is highly
developed psychically. Psychic development requires the ability to ground information,
discern, decipher, and use it wisely in daily life. Instead, excess is a kind of runaway
psychic energy, a car without brakes, a mind that is open but kaleidoscopic.
Elements of Both

Recurrent nightmares can result from either excess or deficiency. As intrusive elements
of consciousness, they can be seen as dissociated fragments rising up from the
unconscious that cannot be integrated into waking life. If the chakra is very closed
down, it may be that the dreams are attempting to bring the unconscious material to
light. Therefore, one must compare the presence of nightmares to other elements of the
sixth chakra checklist before determining the state of the chakra.
As usual, it is possible to have characteristics that are both excessive and deficient.
One may have incredible dream recall, and yet be head-blind or have difficulty
visualizing in waking life. One may be highly psychic or intuitive and still engage in
denial. One may be imaginative, but insensitive to others.
Balanced Characteristics

Balanced characteristics include intuitive perceptive abilities that enhance one's
functioning and the ability to be imaginative and creative. A balanced sixth chakra is
able to calm the mind and see clearly, without having personal issues or lower identities
in the way. It can think symbolically, imagine different outcomes, and find a guiding
vision that gives meaning to life.

RESTORING THE LOTUS

Healing the Sixth Chakra

When we do not properly understand but merely reject the mythic consciousness, we
deprive ourselves of the possibility of psychic and social integration. The mythic
consciousness is as necessary as the mental consciousness.... We can ignore thes
structures

For most people in our culture, sixth chakra work is less a matter of healing than it is of
development. As children and young adults, we are not taught to use our intuition, to
think mythically or symbolically, or even to believe in the possibilities of psychic
awareness. Development of the sixth chakra requires overcoming this bias and
disbelief, and then applying focus, practice, and discipline to developing our awareness.
Learning to see is a matter of learning how to look and of having the patience to look
long enough to find what you are seeking.

As our visual thought process is so intimately linked with the rest of our personal
experience, each step in our healing process — whether of body, emotions, mind, or
personal relationships — brings clarity to the larger picture we are trying to see.
As part of a culture largely disconnected from our ground in the form of earth and body,

most of us lack the stable base necessary to effectively open the upper chakras. They
remain only partially awakened and our task at this level (assuming we have done our
grounding work) is to stimulate their awakening so they can better serve the integration
of the Self.

As this awakening proceeds, we resolve the contradictions between perception and the
rest of experience. When these elements fall into alignment, the flow of the psyche
through the chakra system as a whole becomes ever more fluid and dynamic, awake
and aware, integrated and whole.
Dreamwork

The most potent place to begin development of the sixth chakra is through dreamwork.
Dreams teach us to think symbolically, to see and integrate what is hidden, and to
access the archetypal realm that dwells both within and without. Dreamwork is a broad
topic that deserves volumes of its own. What follows below are some brief guidelines to
get you started.

The first step in working with dreams is to learn to remember them. If we cannot pull our
dreams into waking consciousness in the morning, then we are not successfully getting
across this essential link in the bridge — the link between conscious and unconscious.
Here are a few suggestions:

Make an affirmation as you fall asleep each night that you will remember your

dreams.

Before you go to sleep, review your day in reverse, starting with the most recent
event and moving back through the day to its beginning.
When you wake, do not move your position before mentally reviewing the dream
in your semiconscious state. Only when you have reviewed the dream entirely do
you let your body move. If you have already rolled over, return to the position you
were sleeping in and the dream may come back.

Keep writing implements by your bed and create the habit of writing down
whatever you can remember, even fragments. Once the psyche knows that
attention is being paid to dreams, recall usually improves dramatically.
Some say supplements such as vitamin B or melatonin increase dream activity
and recall. Use of marijuana and alcohol tends to suppress it.
FURTHER SUGGESTIONS

When you write down your dreams, write them in the present tense, such as, "I am
going down the stairs to the basement. I see a hooded figure coming toward me. I feel
scared and want to run but I can't move." Use as much detail as you can — describe
colors, tastes, sounds, and especially feelings. Draw pictures of symbols and images
when possible.

Regard the dream as a composite of your own psyche. Each person, animal, or thing in
the dream is an aspect of yourself, including inanimate elements such as cars, houses,
rocks, bodies of water, tools, or any other strange object that shows up. Cars are often
the vehicle we use to move through life, and houses the structure of our psyche, but
guard against standard interpretations of symbols such as those found in dream books.
What the dream means to you personally is far more significant.
People you recognize from waking life can also symbolize parts of you. Friends,
children, partners, parents, or hated enemies (especially!) can represent aspects of self
such as the inner ally, the inner child, the anima or animus, the internalized parent, or
the shadow. Shadow elements — dark or scary figures or people we strongly dislike — are
best befriended rather than banished or conquered, as they have something to teach
us. Ask them why they are there and what they want from you.

Your point of view in the dream is known as the dream ego. Examine the state of the
dream ego — is it scared, excited, perplexed, angry? What is the dream ego trying to
accomplish in the dream? How is it going about doing this? What is blocking this

accomplishment?

Set up a dialog between various parts in the dream. Yes, you can have a dialog
between the dream ego and the toaster, the tree, or the demon that is chasing you.
Allow the dream ego to take the part of other elements of the dream, such as the tree
you climb upon, the wall that blocks your progress, or the gun that is pointing at you.
Finally, it is helpful to share your dreams with others. If you sleep with someone, make a
morning ritual of sharing your dreams. Find a dream group who can help you enact your
dreams more fully and see aspects you may have missed. Make art from your dreams,
draw pictures, write poetry or stories. Be creative in bringing your dream elements into
waking life. You will develop a valuable language with which to communicate both to
your deepest self and to the world of spirit.
Study Mythology

If we are to expand into archetypal understanding and develop our own archetypal
identity, we need to have a body of knowledge from which to understand our symbols.
Myths are the record of archetypal elements in the human psyche — they reveal the
dance of these archetypes on the transpersonal plane of collective consciousness. The
stories of the gods and goddesses, mythic heroes, harpies, dragons, snakes, and other
totem animals all describe the way archetypal figures have arranged themselves in the
field of human consciousness. Knowledge of these stories stimulates our imagination,
brings context and connectedness to our healing process, and opens us to a spiritual
realm. It is essential for finding deeper meaning in the rest of life. It is also essential for
bridging the internal and the external during the seventh chakra step into universal
consciousness.
Visual Art

Many people claim that they have difficulty visualizing, which leaves them at a
disadvantage for creative visualization, guided meditation, clairvoyant reading, or trance
work. If you are one of these people, do not despair, there is hope. Even if you consider
yourself the world's worst artist, you can stimulate your visual thinking process by
creating art. The purpose here is not to create something to hang on your wall or give to
friends, but to use visual art as a way to tap the unconscious, stimulate visual thinking,
and have fun all at the same time. Here are some suggestions for the nonartist.

DRAWING YOUR CHAKRAS

Get a large piece of newsprint and some crayons, chalk, markers, or pens. Go into a
meditative state and sense the energy in each chakra, one at a time. Focusing on the
first chakra, feel whether it is open or closed, tense or alive, solid or fluid. Then take the
colors that you feel best represent the energy inside, and draw whatever shapes
express the feeling you have there. You might draw big black blocks, yellow swirls, pink
circles, or whatever abstract forms seem to best state how you feel in that area of your
body and life. Then do the same for the second chakra, placing it above the first on the
paper. Repeat for each chakra, and when you are finished, take a look at it. What are
the energetic lines that stand out? Are you more open at the top than the bottom? Are
you constricted and dense, or so light that you're hardly there? Are the chakras
connected to each other, or is there a break between some of them? If you were to
meet this person, what might your reaction be? What areas need to be worked on, as
revealed by your drawing?

COLLAGES

If you have trouble getting in touch with your feelings, want to work through a particular
issue, or are terrified by placing actual color on paper, then you can also make collages.
Pick a theme you want to work on, such as relationships, work, body image,
communication, personal power, or dreams, and get a stack of old magazines, a large
piece of paper or cardboard, some glue, and a pair of scissors. Cut out the pictures (and
captions, too) that resonate with what you are feeling or wanting. Arrange them on the
page, glue them down, and create a piece of art on which you can meditate. You can

continue to add to this whenever you want as it reflects your change and growth.

MANDALAS

Jung described the mandala as a symbol that reflects wholeness. Mandalas are
geometric designs that emanate from a center. They can be made with a compass and
ruler and colored in any way you prefer. You may choose to do one mandala for each
chakra, the first in a red scheme, the second in oranges, the third in yellows and golds,
etc. The mandala — in process or as a finished form — can then be used when meditating
on the associated chakra.
Visualization

When we visualize, imagine, or remember, we use a process very much like the one
used to see psychically; the difference is the subject in question. If I close my eyes and
remember what I saw on my walk yesterday, or close my eyes to imagine a walk I would
like to take tomorrow, the process within is similar — I visualize elements that are not
physically present. Memory is based on what we have seen, but so is our projection of
future events — the only difference is the arrangement of their elements.
This means that if we want to develop our psychic abilities, it helps to learn to visualize.
We can begin with a simple visualization exercise: Imagine a glass and fill it with water.
Imagine it full, half-full, empty, or filled with red, blue, muddy, or clear water. Imagine an
antique etched glass with designs on the outside, and then imagine the glass breaking.
You can embellish this kind of exercise any way you want — the trick is to focus your
attention on forming images at will.

Creative visualization is magic in the truest and highest meaning of the word. It involves
understanding and aligning yourself with the natural principles that govern the workings
of our universe, and learning to use those principles in the most conscious and creative

HAKTI GAW,

We can also remember a dim image and allow it to fill out with details. What did you
have for breakfast yesterday morning? What color were the dishes? What clothes were
you wearing? Who else was in the room? What was the weather like outside? How
many lights were on? We can use this technique to embellish our dream recall. "I am
walking alone in the woods." What kind of woods? What season is it, what time of day?
What kind of trees are there? What colors are you wearing in the dream? Each of these
questions is asked not to find a answer, but to paint the canvas of the imagination.
We can also let a particular image like a rose or a house become a symbol for
something we would like to look at. Imagine your best friend as a house. What color
would the house be? What kind of condition would it be in? How many rooms are there?
How would they be decorated? Who would live there? What would the yard look like?
Would friends visit the house often? Would they feel welcome?
If we use a rose as a symbol, look at how open the rose is. What color is it and how
many petals are open? How strong is the stem, how deep the roots? Is it in a sunny
garden with other roses, or is it thorny and alone? Is the soil fertile and soft, or hard and
rocky? How does this kind of information represent your friend? Or yourself?
Creative visualization is a technique for imagining the things we would like to manifest
in our life and giving them the focus and attention needed to bring them about. Once we
learn to visualize simple things, we can then visualize, in technicolor detail, the things
we want and need. This creates the stained glass window through which we shine our
consciousness in the act of creation.

The best way to visualize creatively is to lie down and relax deeply. Use a few yoga
stretches or your standard meditation technique to relax, or perhaps a few minutes of
simply watching your breath. Then allow the thing, event, or situation you are seeking to
play upon your imagination. Imagine it as if it were already here, as if you are actively
engaged with your fantasy. Allow yourself to feel, on a physical/emotional level, your
body's response. Soak your cells in that feeling; allow it to resonate with each chakra.

Allow yourself to enjoy the process — do not make it an effort.

When you feel that your mind and body have thoroughly soaked up the visualization, it
is time to let it go. If we do not let it go, it is like writing a letter that we never mail.
Sometimes I put a glowing sphere around my image and imagine that it is a balloon
floating off into the sky. As I let go of it, I tell myself that it is now on its way to
manifestation and turn my attention to something else. (Otherwise, I am not letting it
go.) I affirm my trust that my vision will manifest in the form and time that is most
appropriate for all concerned.
Guided Visualizations and Trance Journeys

There are many wonderful tapes on the market now that take us on illuminated journeys
through archetypal realms, seeking visions, spirit guides, healing, and exploration.
Friends can guide us on exploratory journeys using a variety of techniques, from
reading aloud a journey written in a book to composing a journey complete with music,
drumming, singing, or chanting.

It is also interesting to have a friend create an astral journey out of an archetypal myth.
First, find a myth that speaks to you with a poetic telling that is rich with imagery. Then
put yourself in a comfortable, relaxed state where you will not be disturbed, and have a
friend read you the myth as if you were the main character. If it is the myth of
Persephone's journey to the Underworld, for example, imagine that you are one of the
main characters in the myth, such as Persephone being abducted, Demeter losing her
daughter, or Hades stealing his bride. Allow your friend to read it as a guided
visualization in the second person: "Now you are on the hillside, picking flowers.
Suddenly you feel a draft of cold air coming up from the ground." Your friend should
allow periods of silence so you can deeply explore the feelings aroused by the myth. Be
sure to take the myth to its completion, for the resolution of the story contains the
healing and teaching we seek.

Another option is the trance journey, where we create our own guided journey that
unfolds in the moment. To facilitate an altered state, it is helpful to play drumming,
chanting, or instrumental music in the background. Pick a theme for entering the journey
(a visit to the akashic records, a journey to the Underworld, seeking a spirit guide, etc.)
and allow the images to form as if walking through a dream. As images or figures
appear in your imagination, interact with them. Give them gifts, ask them questions,
dance with them, or embrace them. Allow yourself to learn what they can teach you.
When you return, be sure to write down what you have learned in your journal while it is
still fresh in your mind. You may find that the insights keep coming even though you are
no longer in trance.
Develownq Intuition

By learning to contact, listen to, and act on our intuition, we can directly connect to t
higher power of the universe and allow it to become our guiding force.

SHAKTI GAWA

Whether we are aware of it or not, our intuition is available all the time. The problem is
whether we listen to it or not. In order to listen to it, we must validate that it has the
potential to give us useful information. We must believe that it is there and is viable. We
need not rely on it exclusively, as we can and should double-check the information our
intuition gives us, but we can honor the hunches that lead us in the right direction.
As intuition is a passive, largely unconscious experience, it cannot be forced. Instead
we must tune in deeply to our feelings, listen to our guts and to the nonrational parts of
our thinking process. We must enter a state of openness and trust. If we do not trust
ourselves or our surroundings, we will have difficulty trusting our intuition.
Who in your past has invalidated your intuition? What beliefs do you hold about its
power? How much do you trust your intuitive process and what are the grounds upon
which you base your trust or distrust?

the
MN

Clarissa Pinkola Estes tells a story in Women Who Run with the Wolves about a young
girl who, upon her mother's death, received a couple of small dolls to put in her pocket.
As her mother lay dying, she was told that these dolls would answer her questions by
jumping up and down in her pocket. This is a metaphor for that turbulent gut feeling we
get when something is not right. How often we override that sensation and push
ourselves forward, only to regret it later!

As a tool for our intuition, we can create imaginary symbols to speak to us, such as the
dolls mentioned above. Others use an inner guide, wise woman or sage, angel, or
animal totem as a symbol of their intuition. With a clear visualization, you can ask your
guide any questions you might have. The answers come from within yourself, but often
the guide can be the symbolic vehicle to translate that information into a form you can
receive.
Clairvoyance

Clairvoyance is French for "clear seeing." It involves looking into the clear spaces
around an object, rather than at the solid shapes of the material world. Clairvoyance is
what remains when we clear illusions out of our own mind and look directly at the
energies swirling about us. It enables us to see auras, chakras, and the subtle energy
dynamics that flow within, around, and between people. Clairvoyance can be developed
by anyone — it does not require a special gene or talent, though some people take to it
more easily than others.

Clairvoyant abilities are developed through a combination of all these exercises. Being
able to visualize helps us see answers to questions that arise, and following our intuition
helps us make sense of what we see so we can apply it appropriately.
In my workshops on the sixth chakra, we begin with a combination of meditation and
visualization. People then pick a partner and attempt to read each other's chakras. To
do so, they sit in chairs opposite each other, close their eyes, and allow images to form
in response to questions. Such questions might include: "What chakra is this person
having the most trouble with? What kind of energies or fears are blocking that chakra?
Where do they come from?" As images form, they are reported back to the person
being read. "I see in the heart chakra a door that's loose on its hinges. I see a kind of
darkness near the back on the left." The impressions may not always be visual, as
some people are more kinesthetic or aural. "When I look at your third chakra, I feel in
my own body an excitement of energy moving upward." "When I try to sense your first
chakra, I hear the message that you do not ever feel safe in the world." Information can
come to us in a variety of ways.

I am always amazed at how a few simple warm-up visualization exercises, such as
coloring the chakras, and others listed above, allow people an immediate experience of
clairvoyance. When they feed their impressions back to their partner, they are amazed
at their accuracy. This does not make them experienced readers overnight, but it does
allow some validation of their psychic abilities so they can begin to use them more
often. Like a muscle, our vision gets stronger when we use our third eye.
Vision Quest

To have a vision is to carry within us a source of inspiration and power. Like a guiding
light, it illuminates our path and helps us sort out the many decisions we must make.
Vision gives meaning and purpose to our life, shaping and transforming the world
around us. Vision creates the strange attractors that shape chaotic energies into
definable patterns. For some, vision comes easily, rising unbidden from the depths of
consciousness to clarify our purpose or understanding. For most people, however,
vision needs to be sought, invited, cultivated, and celebrated.

Native American religions and other forms of nature spirituality have a tradition known
as the Vision Quest. A Vision Quest is a ritual of purification and listening, an open but
focused search for spiritual teaching and guidance. It involves a willingness to humble

oneself, embrace personal ordeal, and undo the connection to civilization that so blinds
our sight long enough to see clearly into the patterns of the natural world. As a solo rite,
it is a deep embracing of Self for the purpose of expanding into creative, archetypal, and
universal identities.

What follows is a brief outline of a Vision Quest experience, not a full set of instructions.
There are many variations and many groups who facilitate such quests, allowing you,
the quester, to be free of mundane details and enter fully into the process. These
groups also provide worthwhile guidance, ceremony, and support.
The Vision Quest usually includes three basic phases. In the first phase we sever
ourselves from the world as we know it. We leave our city, home, and friends, and go
far enough out into the wilderness so that there is no evidence of humans. A special
place is chosen for the quest, one that has beauty and power, isolation and challenge.
As we leave the known world, we psychologically sever ourselves from our mundane
concerns, letting go of the daily worries that usually occupy our mind.
One enters the wilderness alone on a Vision Quest, with only a minimum of equipment.
During the heart of the quest, which should be a minimum of three days but can be
longer, the quester abstains from food. Fasting on the quest is a way of purification and
of weakening normal ego defenses so we become open to more subtle planes.
During the heart of the quest, one enters a sacred dimension, outside the limitations of
time and space, opening fully to spirit. The first day may be spent in walking meditation,
searching for the right spot in which to focus one's attention. The second day may be
spent sitting in a sacred circle created on the chosen spot, chanting, meditating,
praying, and listening. One creates their own private ceremony to connect with the spirit
of the place and ask for what they are seeking.

During this phase any number of things might happen. One may encounter their own
psychological demons. One may meet animal spirits, have an experience with the wind,
or have powerful dreams. There may be an experience of personal ego death, with a
period of emptiness and loss that is eventually followed by a psychological rebirth filled
with vision and understanding.

When the solo time is done and the spirit of the place has been thanked, it is time to
return. Whether with a group or with a friend camping nearby, the quester then returns
ceremonially to share the vision and wisdom that was gained. The group or friend can
then help facilitate the transition back to civilization, where the vision can, over time, be
implemented.

The important thing about a Vision Quest is to undo our usual way of looking at things.
Our attitudes are reinforced by the culture, which impacts us daily with images,
conversations, and experiences. During a Vision Quest, we consciously choose to enter
the darkness in order to find and receive the light of new consciousness.
Light

Since the pineal is primarily regulated by environmental light changes, we are artificially
manipulating and desensitizing its function much of the
artificial lighting in our indoor and outdoor environments.

Exposure to the full spectrum of sunlight is essential to our health. Unfortunately, as
civilization progresses, we spend more and more time indoors under artificial lights
(especially fluorescents), exposed to frequencies of light that are not conducive to
health. As the disappearing ozone layer allows greater risk of harm from the sun's
ultraviolet rays, we cover our bodies with clothing, sunscreen, sunglasses, and hats that
further block our exposure to full-spectrum light. While this may be necessary to some
degree, we are losing valuable exposure to frequencies of light that promote well-being.
Jacob Liberman, in his book Light: Medicine of the Future, states that we not only suffer
from malnutrition but also from "malillumination." Insufficient exposure to full-spectrum

sunlight can cause symptoms such as depression, chronic fatigue, higher levels of
stress hormones such as ACTH and Cortisol, as well as higher cholesterol levels.
Studies of children have shown that improper lighting greatly contributes to
hyperactivity, learning disorders, visual difficulties, nutritional problems, and even tooth
decay.9

Psychologists have identified a depressive condition related to the changes of the
seasons called seasonal affective disorder (SAD), where people become lethargic and
depressed during the winter months when there is less light. The effect of significantly
increased exposure to full-spectrum lighting is so dramatic for people with this condition
that it has become the treatment of choice. Could it be that the Prozac nation is
suffering from light deprivation due to the predominance of indoor lifestyles?
Light enters the body through the eyes, which send signals directly to the
hypothalamus, which, in turn, regulates the body's autonomic nervous system and
endocrine system (both of which influence the chakras). The pineal gland, associated
with chakra six, is a light-sensitive organ responsible for the production of melatonin,
which regulates sleep cycles and helps coordinate the body's biological functions with
the external environment. Over one hundred bodily functions have been correlated with
diurnal cycles. When we alter this rhythm with artificial lighting, jet lag, or irregular
hours, we throw off the body's central coordination. As Jacob Liberman describes it,
All the body's systems relate to each other in a constant state of flux, with the
hypothalamus at the center. The hypothalamus interfaces between mind and body,
coordinating the readiness of both, affecting our consciousness, and thereby controlling
our constant state of preparedness. This critical maintenance of body harmony is
effected by synchronizing the body's vital functions with the environmental conditions,
or, as some people say, "becoming one with the universe."10
Meditation

Meditation improves our focus and concentration. For most people, rising to the upper
chakras requires a regular process of meditation. To open inner sight requires an ability
to calm and control the mind and keep it one-pointed. Like a flashlight in the darkness,
our focus illuminates what we need to see.

Meditation is mentioned here because it is an important element in psychic
development. However, as it is primarily an activity of seventh chakra work, a more
detailed discussion of meditation methods and techniques can be found in the chapter
chakra seven, on this page.

CONCLUSION

But the Self, as an inclusive term that embraces our whole living organism, not only
contains the deposit and totality of all past life but is also a point of departure, the fertile
soil from which all future life will spring.

JOLANDE JACOBI

A

scending to the sixth chakra opens us to transcendent realms beyond ordinary

awareness. This expansion can radically shift our perspective of daily situations and
bring profound insight and vision. It can also elevate our understanding to broader
levels, allowing us to embrace a much larger system of being than we have ever
encountered. In expansion of consciousness, chakra six takes us to a beautiful world of
colors and symbols, dreams and fantasy, archetypes and images. The possibilities
expand through imagination, which stimulates creativity. Our new vista gives us
increased understanding, as we not only perceive the patterns around us, but also
perceive our own place and purpose in them.

Chakra six prepares us for the final passage on the Rainbow Bridge. With its focus on
archetypes, it lays the groundwork for understanding the intricate dance of divinity and
consciousness that we shall encounter in the next chakra.

CHAKRA SEVEN

Opening to the Mystery of Heaven

SEVENTH CHAKRA AT A GLANCE

ELEMENT

Thought
NAME

Sahasrara (thousandfold)

PURPOSE

Understanding

ISSUES

Transcendence

Immanence

Belief systems

Higher Power

Divinity

Union

Vision

COLOR

Violet

LOCATION

Cerebral cortex
IDENTITY

Universal

ORIENTATION

Self-knowledge

DEMON

Attachment

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE

Early adulthood and after

DEVELOPMENTAL TASK

Assimilation of knowledge

Development of wisdom

BASIC RIGHTS

To know and to learn

BALANCED CHARACTERISTICS

Ability to perceive, analyze, and assimilate information

Intelligent, thoughtful, aware

Open-minded, able to question

Spiritually connected

Wisdom and mastery, broad understanding
TRAUMAS AND ABUSES
Withheld information
Education that thwarts curiosity
Forced religiosity
Invalidation of one's beliefs

Blind obedience (no right to question or think for oneself)
Misinformation, lies
Spiritual abuse
DEFICIENCY

Spiritual cynicism
Learning difficulties
Rigid belief systems
Apathy

Excess in lower chakras — materialism, greed, domination of others
EXCESS

Overintellectualization
Spiritual addiction
Confusion

Dissociation from body
PHYSICAL MALFUNCTIONS

Coma
Migraines
Brain tumors
Amnesia

Cognitive delusions

HEALING PRACTICES

Reestablish physical, emotional connection (excess)

Reestablish spirit connection (deficiency)

Learning and study

Spiritual discipline

Meditation

Psychotherapy

Examine belief systems

Develop inner witness

Work with higher power
AFFIRMATIONS
Divinity resides within.
I am open to new ideas.
Information I need comes to me.
The world is my teacher
I am guided by higher power.
I am guided by inner wisdom.

SHADES OF VIOLET

The Separation of Spirit and Matter

Western civilization is founded on the belief system that spirit and matter are separate
and distinct. The earth is treated as an inanimate object to be used wastefully, at our
own lack of discretion. Science examines the world rationally and methodically,
pointedly avoiding the more nebulous issue of spirit. Corporations are built to enhance
their economic prowess, often with little regard for the spiritual well-being of their
workers or the environment.

People who give spirituality a high priority are often considered fringe members of
society. For many seekers and respected masters, spiritual practice is seen as
antithetical to mundane existence. Monks leave their homes and families and renounce
all worldly pursuits in order to obtain enlightenment. Nuns cloister themselves to be
closer to God. New Age ascension philosophy advises transcending the body and
becoming nothing but light. Eastern philosophies tell us to let go of worldly attachments.
We are no longer concerned with the dualistic opposition between God and man, but
with the immanent tension in the God image itself.... This inner non-equilibrium,
glorious imperfection of life, is the effective principle of evolution. God is not the ere
but the mind of the universe.

C.G.JUNG

The separation of spirituality from the rest of life leaves us spiritually homeless. In

reflection of the archetypal divorce between Earth Mother and Sky Father, we are
taught to seek enlightenment by denying the basic nature of our biological existence.
This chasm between Heaven and Earth creates a corresponding abyss between spirit
and soul that many fall into as they engage in ascetic practices, sign their will over to
gurus, and disengage from the world. Denying our basic nature in order to achieve unity
is a contradiction steeped in dualistic thinking, which will never lead to unity or
wholeness.

The seventh chakra is about merging with divine consciousness and realizing our true
nature. The petty concerns that occupy the bulk of our waking life often distract us from
remembering who we truly are beneath the jobs and the cars, the kids and the clothes.
It is important to know that we are children of the divine seeking our way back
home — that there is a deeper meaning to life that underlies all of existence.
What is valid about this myth of separation is that we do need to disconnect from the
illusions and attachments we place between ourselves and the divine, from the
substitutions we use to fill the emptiness of our soul.1 I believe the ultimate source of
these soul wounds stems from stripping our ordinary existence of its spiritual meaning,
leaving the average person without purpose or direction.

The crown chakra is the thousand-petaled lotus. Most people think of the petals as
reaching up into the heavens; actually, the lotus petals turn downward like a sunflower,
dripping nectar into the crown and down through the chakras. In this way, the two ends
of the spectrum are profoundly connected. How can a lotus bloom without roots in the
earth? How can it reach heaven if its roots are not deep and wide?
The Rainbow Bridge, like any bridge, is about connection. The two ends of the spectrum
connect the individual self with universal creation. The middle section of the bridge
takes that combination out into the world, through appropriate action, right relationship,
and creative contributions. Our purpose in the seventh chakra is to contact the divine,
but also to manifest divinity in our bodies and actions and so transform the world. In the
seventh chakra, we see divinity in all matter and in all its infinite arrangements. Crossing
the Rainbow Bridge is about stretching to connect the limited with the infinite, while still
retaining both qualities. It is through that stretch that we grow.

To arrive at the fully blooming lotus crown chakra, our stem needs to be connected all
the way to Earth, our roots deep in the ground. Through this connection, our lotus is
nourished and continues to bloom, its petals ever unfolding. Our purpose is indeed to
liberate the spirit, but if we are to avoid getting lost in the infinite we must retain a home
to which the spirit can return. This is the challenge of a psychologically balanced
seventh chakra.

UNFOLDING

THE THOUSAND-PETALED LOTUS

Basic Issues of the Seventh Chakra

Consciousness
Awareness
The Witness

Belief Systems

Operating Systems
Universal Identity

Attachment
Higher Power
Transcendence
Immanence

Divinity
Information
Intelligence

Meaning

Unity

It is the tremendous experience of becoming conscious, which nature has

Consciousness

Consciousness, the final frontier. That vast and indispensable key to the ultimate
mystery, endless and unfathomable. The very thing that allows us to look into the mirror
of the soul and perceive our own existence. Consciousness is both our final destination
and the means of travel.

The act of individual consciousness reflecting upon its own immensity is the mystery of
the crown chakra. To realize that consciousness flows through every quantum of life
around us, and to behold the same presence within our own consciousness, this is
enlightenment.

What is it that is reading these words right now, sorting them out, making sense of
them? What is it that drew you to read this book, choose your partner, walk the path you
travel each day? What is it that sees, hears, remembers, feels, thinks, and moves your
body through its daily activities? To answer this is to find the final piece of the Rainbow
Bridge.

We think of consciousness as our thoughts, but thoughts are what consciousness
creates, not what it is. We think of consciousness as our perceptions, but there is a
faculty that not only perceives, but also remembers, discriminates, and integrates our
perceptions. Who or what does this? We feel the pull of consciousness on our
emotions, but who or what feels those emotions, and how do we experience feeling?
This is the mystery that we embrace in the crown chakra — a mystery that can only be
experienced, not explained.

To become aware of our own consciousness is to witness a miracle. That your mind can
decipher these strange shapes on the page, put them together into words, and then into
concepts, and action — this is a monumental skill. That we can contain within us the
words to hundreds of songs, identify countless voices over a telephone — even these
mundane skills are miraculous. That we can run our own programs and rewrite them at
the same time, that we can learn vast quantities about any subject we study, and
transform that knowledge into creative expression, these are phenomenal
accomplishments. Though we have computers that can calculate beyond our human
abilities, we have yet to create a machine remotely as sophisticated as the human brain.
Mystic sages describe consciousness as a unified field in which all of existence is
embedded. Sentient beings have the capacity to tap into that universal field of
intelligence, where vast stores of information reside, much as a personal computer can
access the Internet. How much consciousness we can tap into depends on our
apparatus. A hand calculator can't utilize as much information as a personal computer,
and therefore can't access the Internet or store research notes. A monkey can't tap into
the same magnitude of consciousness as a human, and is unable to do mathematics or
write poetry.

Opening the crown chakra is about expanding our awareness so that it can embrace a
larger portion of the universal field of consciousness. This occurs through meditation,

spiritual practice, mystical experiences, altered states of consciousness, study and
education, and the elusively simple but profound act of paying attention.

Diving in the River of Consciousness

In a world which is creating itself, the idea of divinity does not remain outside, but is
embedded in the totality of self-organization dynamics at all levels and in all dimensions.

ERICH JANTSCH

Erich Jantsch, the late systems theorist, has outlined three distinct system levels of
human consciousness: the rational, the mythical, and the evolutionary. 2 If we imagine
life in all its complexity as if it were water flowing in a riverbed, we can illustrate each of
these levels as distinct operating systems that organize information and experience.
We begin by sitting on the river bank and watching the water flow by. This represents
the rational system, where knowledge comes through science and other logical,
empirical means. The essential activities of the rational mode are observation and
enactment. Our method of inquiry is characterized by an l-it relationship — subject to
object. We do things to it and observe its reaction. We observe and measure the
water's rise and fall, the stream bank and its erosion, the leaves and sticks that go by.
We learn as much as we can from outside the stream, but as we lean closer and
closer to the water in an attempt to understand its deeper mysteries, we eventually fall
in. Immersed in the river, our perspective shifts dramatically. This plunges us into the
mythical system.

Many people choose to remain on the stream bank, forever gathering data. They think
they will gain enlightenment simply by accumulating information. They watch and learn
but never become a part of something larger.

When we fall into the river, we shift from observation to experience. Immersed in the
flowing water, we are no longer on the outside looking in, but are part of the mythical
aspect of the stream, a force greater than ourselves. It cannot be explained in terms of
gallons of water or rate of flow, but it comes through the realm of experience. If we
embrace this mythic level and choose to swim in the river for a while, we no longer view
our relationship with the river as / and it, but as / and thou. Here, subject embraces
subject. The river has a life force of its own — it is going somewhere and taking us along
with it. We can foolishly try to swim upstream, or we can allow its force to take us on a
journey.

Archetypal consciousness emerges when we enter the river. At the archetypal level we
identify with the river, identify it as the force that is taking us along our path, identify with
its fast and slow places, its dangerous rapids and sensuous pools. We identify and
embrace.

Without evolutionary inquiry, we lack a sense of direction; without mythological inquiry,
we lack a sense of systemic existence. Without both, we separate ourselves from the
world we live in.

ERICH JANTSCH

Our collection of data gathered at the rational level now assembles itself into an intuitive
whole, a complete gestalt that involves mind and body simultaneously. It helps to know
if a waterfall or rapid lies ahead. This knowledge is our foundation, the necessary lower
chakra orientation of consciousness. Still, it tells us little about how to swim, a skill we
can only learn by getting wet. Once swimming, we cannot explain how many gallons of
water to push with our hands or even how often to stroke. We can only learn by feel and
by doing, as it is with the stream of life as well.

At the mythic level, we battle forces that have lives of their own. In order to survive, we
must become one with a force, but we have to leave the stream bank in order to have
this experience. This is the aspect of spirituality that involves letting go. The stream
bank is our familiar world, our rational mind, our safety, and security. It is our body of
knowledge. As we enter into mythic consciousness, the rational system does not

disappear but is transcended by a deeper experience.

Becoming "one with the river" does not mean that we lose ourselves. If we simply gave
up and surrendered to the water we could drown or be dashed on the rocks! This is the
challenge that most of us meet on our spiritual path. How do we become one with a
force greater than ourselves without losing ourselves? Our third chakra will has to
engage and drive the feet to kick. We have to learn our relationship to the river and
interpret our many feelings that tell us just how to move among the rocks. Once we
jump fully into the stream of energy flowing through our bodies and our lives, we are
forced to deal with larger challenges. We are forced to evolve.

By this merging — not just jumping in but learning to swim until it is a glorious free-
flowing dance — we enter the third level of consciousness: the evolutionary system. At
this point / and thou become we. This is the expansion into universal mind, the union
with the divine, and the all-inclusive state of being where system boundaries have
dissolved and reformed to a greater and deeper whole. Again, we do not lose the /, we
reframe it. The / now includes the all. Here is our final transcendence into cosmic
consciousness.

Many spiritual disciplines, especially those oriented toward ascendance, advise us to
give up the self, to surrender all to a master, guru, or a particular concept of God. 3
While it is important to give up attachments to the lower egos, what is really called for is
to become one with the divine. There is no we without an /. To become one with the
divine is not to abandon the Self (as archetype of wholeness) but to realize that divine
consciousness is who that Self really is.

To become one with the divine is to dissolve or transcend the boundaries that keep us
separate. These boundaries exist in our mind alone. What we do need to give up is our
attachment to the stream bank, our refusal to take the plunge and get wet, to take the
chance on the unknown. We need to give up our clinging to the rational mode when it is
unable to give us the deeper meaning of what it is like to be in the stream.
Tic WrrNE88

What we seek is the very essence of that which is seeking.

Sometimes the consciousness within is referred to as the witness. The witness sits
behind our normal activity, watching without judgment the changing emotions, the flurry
of thoughts, the impulses, and attachments. The witness is something above and
beyond the body and its experience, beyond memories and dreams, even though it
silently observes all these events. The witness may be the soul essence that has lived
beyond this lifetime. It may be a divine intelligence that is larger than the Self. To
become aware of the witness is to become aware of the essence that dwells within. The
witness is the core of the Self, an indestructible spark of divinity.
To embrace the witness is to embrace the underlying reality of our being. The witness
can be both objective and subjective. It can detach from the places where we suffer,
and it can teach us how to swim in the stream when we are flailing about. The witness is
the eternal guide, an invaluable friend, the deep inner awareness of the Self. Exercises
for embracing the witness are included at the end of this chapter. For now, as you read
through the rest of these words and as you put down the book and go about your life, be
aware of the witness inside you. Just be aware.
Belief Systems

If we continue the analogy of chakras as programs on disks, plugged into the overall
system as needed, then the crown chakra can be seen as the operating system. In a
computer, the operating system enables us to read a program and make use of it. It
interprets the instructions of that program. In other words, it makes meaning out of
them. The prime activity of the seventh chakra is to derive meaning.4
It is not only for unanswered questions that we seek knowledge, but also for the
examination of unquestioned answers.

Meaning tells us how to orient. It tells us how to interpret something, how to react, how
to organize our experience. It gives purpose to our lives by creating a larger context in
which to view our own existence. Most people, when something happens to them, want
to discover its meaning. If you have an unusual pain in your body, you go to a doctor to
find out what it means. If you get laid off your job, you want to know whether this means
your work was poor, the economy is deteriorating, or whether the universe is telling you
to change careers. In the human psyche, meaning gets assimilated into a set of beliefs.
These beliefs then become the operating system that runs all the other chakra
programs.

The universe is exactly the way we think it is and that's why.

JOHN WOODS

Our beliefs are made of interpretations of our experience. After beliefs are formed, the
reverse is true — interpretation is based on belief, forming a continual feedback system.
When Susan was a child, she was constantly disappointed. Her parents would
repeatedly promise her something — a gift, a special outing — and then break their
promise. She formed the belief that no one could be trusted. Now, she takes the
slightest hesitation in someone's voice as proof that they are going to betray her. Her
belief influences her interpretation of present situations. Since this is her operating
system, she operates from a place of mistrust.

Our beliefs are based on concepts we have formed. Thus conception is the beginning
point of all that we manifest. We have to conceive of something before we can do it.
When the egg and sperm come together in biological conception, there is very little
material substance but a great deal of information. The DNA in the egg and sperm
contain the "in-form-ation" (means of forming inside) that organizes the tissue into a
particular form. 5 Likewise, our beliefs and concepts are ordering principles for
information. They allow us to organize our data and give us guidance on how to behave.
The nature of our belief system determines our interpretation of any event that we
experience. This interpretation is the governing principle in the way we order our life.
The "little engine that could" believed it could make it. The optimist who believes that
this is the best of all possible worlds has a different interpretation than the pessimist
who is afraid he is right. Our beliefs shape our reality and our reality shapes our beliefs.
Joan, for example, has had a number of negative experiences with men, including two
incidences of rape. She holds a belief that men are selfish, dangerous, and less
spiritually evolved. Nicole, on the other hand, holds a belief that she is nothing without a
man, that she is incomplete alone, and she is always looking for Mr. Right. They are
talking to each other at a party, when an attractive man walks up to them and begins
flirting. What do you think might happen? Joan sees this as an interruption of her
conversation, feels insulted, and becomes rude. Nicole is delighted and cuts off her
conversation with Joan to speak to the man, an action that Joan interprets as his fault.
Picking up these attitudes, the man naturally turns his attention toward Nicole and
ignores Joan. One event is interpreted in two different ways, and these interpretations in
turn then influence the man's behavior, which supports their beliefs.
The journey downward from the crown chakra begins with the conception of an idea.
This conception is the supreme bindu, the dimensionless point of consciousness from
which everything originates. From conceptualization we generate images in our sixth
chakra. We have discussed how the light of consciousness shines through those
images like stained glass, giving them potential for manifestation. The images that we
carry then generate our story — our verbal litany of beliefs that we describe to others.
Our story generates certain kinds of relationships, which stimulate various activities,
feelings, and finally bodily experiences as manifestation descends from the conceptions
of consciousness down through the chakras.

If we want to see what consciousness looks like, we need only look around us. All that

we see began with conception — the buildings designed by architects, the people
walking down the street, the trees and flowers that grew naturally from seeds. To see
the nature of our own consciousness is to see its reflection in our own creations — the
faces of our family, the way we care for our homes, the expression of our bodies, the
things we create. As consciousness within changes, these outer manifestations change
as well. In therapy, it is easier to generate shifts in consciousness than applying those
insights to changing one's life. Nonetheless, the outer changes are impossible without
the inner awakening.

The reprogramming work in the crown chakra requires an examination of our belief
systems, for they are the primary structures that generate our reality. Often invisible, our
belief systems are so much a part of us that we fail to recognize their existence. The
awakened crown chakra questions any and all of our belief systems, constantly
reprogramming and upgrading the operating system that runs our lives.
Universal Identity

Each of the identities explored in the lower chakras can be seen as metaphoric layers of
clothing. Let us review these identities once again now that we are at the end of our
iournev

lity bee

C.G.JUNG

The first chakra brought us our physical identity, where we identify with the body and its
needs and abilities, as well as the physical world around us. The physical identity is
oriented toward self-preservation.

At the second chakra we picked up our emotional identity, feeling the sensations of the
physical body and transforming them on an unconscious level into value-oriented
meaning. What feels good, we value, what feels bad, we devalue and move away from.
The emotional identity sparks desire and motivation, which serve as fuel for the will in
the chakra above. Our drive here is toward self-gratification.

As the will develops, our autonomous, separate self awakens. This is the birth of the
ego identity, the executive element of the Self. The ego begins to split off from the
unconscious drives as it orients to the outer world. It is primarily concerned with self-
definition.

At the fourth chakra, we moved into our social identity, where the ego identity expands
to include relationships with others. Here, the lower chakra drives, if satisfied, are ready
to take a backseat as we move toward service to others. The reflexive quality of this
identity is self-acceptance which is essential to acceptance of others.
The fifth chakra brought us our creative identity. Our awareness of the world beyond
ourselves has grown and we seek to make a contribution to its culture, its arts, to the
creative process in general. What is inside has had time to develop into
self-expression.

Chakra six "dumped us in the river," where we entered the mythic realm of the
archetypal identity. Here we begin to identify with the transpersonal, mythic forces that
guide our world and lives. As we see ourselves reflected in these mythic forces, we
enter a transpersonal self-reflection. The archetypal experience brings us a way to

conceptualize and experience divine energies.

Universal Nature deposits certain habits of movement, personality, character, faculties,
dispositions, tendencies in us, and that is what we usually call ourselves.... What is left
ourselves in the midst of all this? Not much, to tell the truth, or everything, according
on by our consciousness.

SRIAUROBINDO

In the crown chakra, we come to the final and largest identity, that which identifies with
all of creation, the universal identity. As our consciousness expands, our understanding

embraces an ever larger scope. As we discover the immensity of the system we are
embedded in, we identify with our universal connection. Our information can now
encompass knowledge of distant galaxies thousands of light years across, as well as
the dance of subatomic particles existing within each cell of our body. We embrace the
story of evolution that covers billions of years, and realize we are part of the entire web
of life — animals, plants, mountains, and seas. This vast identification can occur only
through consciousness itself, through information. I can embrace my evolutionary
history because I have learned about it. I can imagine spiral galaxies because I have
seen pictures of them. I can connect with the larger world when I transcend my ego and
realize the larger meaning of existence. This is the common theme in mystical
experiences: the disidentification with the smaller ego states, and the recognition of a
unitary identity with the entire creation.

Each of these identities moves from something innately individual — as unique and
singular as our bodies — toward the universal. At the outer extreme of the crown chakra,
individuality is completely transcended and absorbed within the larger field of the divine,
expressed by the Buddhist maxim Thou Art That. The purpose of the crown chakra, of
meditation, and indeed, of most spiritual disciplines is to break the limited bond with the
lower identities and realize this universal identity.

Each of these identities is, in fact, a belief system and a means of interpretation. Take a
relationship. A feeling-identified person will carry on a long-distance relationship even
though it is not practical, so long as the feelings are strong enough. A sensate type, to
whom practicality is more important, may end the relationship regardless of the level of
feelings. If you live in your social identity, then you interpret the relationship in terms of
your social role. If it fails, then you think you have failed in your role, or the other person
has failed in his or her role. If you live in your creative identity, then you question
whether the relationship supports your creative work. In archetypal identity, you may
see the relationship as an archetypal dance between Mother and Child, between a Dark
God and a Maiden Goddess, or between a Hero and his conquest.
In the universal identity, the operating system transcends all these interpretations and
simply witnesses the incredible dance of the cosmos in its myriad manifestations. In this
identification, we let go of attachment and control and instead open to miraculous
witnessing. It is here that we truly "let go and let God."

To realize one's universal identity is to recognize our many identities as suits of clothing.
This does not mean that we discard these clothes — I happen to enjoy my clothing very
much, and there are few places I feel comfortable naked. Likewise, I need my ego and
persona when I give a lecture. I need to identify with my body when it's tired. Yet I also
need to know that these identities are options that only represent parts of a larger
wholeness. They are clothing I can put on and take off when appropriate, because they
are not the sole statement of who I am.

Realizing one's universal identity requires a foundation of the lower identities to be in
place. We are less likely to search for cosmic consciousness while in the midst of an
emotional or physical identity crisis. We are far more stable when lower-order needs are
satisfied.

Attachment— Demon of the Crown Chakra

The demon of the crown chakra is attachment. While attachment is necessary for
making and maintaining commitments essential to the lower chakras, it inhibits our
ability to expand in the crown chakra. Attachment denies the constantly fluid state of the
universal system. It keeps us anchored in time, unable to move forward, trapped in a
small place, unable to embrace a larger place. In Eastern religions, attachment is seen
as the basis of suffering.

Through pain and not getting what I want and expect, I learn the most about my
attachments and about myself, and thus I can grow.

Attachment is a slippery demon. It is not something we can live entirely without, as we
need to keep some healthy attachments to our children and loved ones, our goals and
agreements. I once heard a story of a yogi who meets a master and asks for teaching.
The master asked him to prove his sincerity by renouncing his wife and family, which
the yogi did immediately as proof of his nonattachment. Is it truly a spiritual act to
abandon people who needed him so that he could pursue his own desires for
enlightenment? In my view, I think not. It was just a transfer of attachment. True non-
attachment would have been to say, "I have responsibilities right now. I will come when
the time is right."

For some, letting go of attachment is synonymous with letting go of responsibility. It can
become a means of escape. When the going gets rough, we simply let go of our
connection rather than work through sticky issues. In so doing, we experience freedom
but sacrifice growth.

In the truer sense of the word, letting go of attachment is about how we direct our
psychic energy. To let go of attachment is to release our fixation upon something
external, to relinquish our need to control, our desire for a certain outcome. Attachment
is our way of not trusting the wisdom of the universe while it actually tries to teach us
something. We stay attached because we are defending against our suffering, rather
than seeing that suffering as a teaching. Attachment says we are certain we know what
is best. It does not allow the humility that opens us to something larger.
Like all demons of the chakras, attachment itself is a teacher. As I began this chapter, I
lost the love of someone to whom I was very deeply attached. (Was I being tested?) My
attachment left me distracted in my work, suffering in my soul. I prayed to be free of it,
did rituals around letting go of it, but it failed to budge. I remained attached — fighting it
all the while. Finally a friend advised me not to fight it so much and just let it take its
course — to grieve. Fighting was only increasing the attachment. Instead we have to
address the underlying factors that empower the attachment. What purpose does it
serve? What is the pain that wants to be soothed? Who is it that is suffering? The loss
forces us to redirect our energies. What does it push us toward? What is the lesson it
teaches us? Addressing our underlying needs will ease our attachments to what we
cannot have.

Suffering may force a new perspective and perception about what is reality. It can
weaken the ego through repeated frustration just enough to allow a giving up or
surrendering, which opens the person to the possibility of transcending his or her
previous belief systems and levels of consciousness.

CHARLES WHITFIELD

Attachment fixates our energy outside the Self. Rather than focus on the object of
attachment — the lost lover, the lost opportunity, the elusive reward — we should redirect
the psychic energy to the Self. We can look once again for the inner witness. Who is it
that is attached? What underlying belief supports this attachment? What purpose does
this belief serve? What are its benefits? What are its costs? Which is greater?
We can also become attached to belief systems. In the 1600s, the Catholic church was
so attached to the idea that the sun revolved around the earth that Galileo was silenced
and punished for saying otherwise. The father of someone I knew was so attached to
the belief that his gay son was a sinner that he refused to see him as he lay on his
deathbed with AIDS, denying them both a powerful moment of completion. Certainty
can be one of the greatest tickets to ignorance. When we are sure that we know
something, we run the risk of closing down the crown chakra. New information requires
us to expand our belief system, and the refusal to do so closes our system.
Another word for attachment is addiction. We become attached because it serves our
purpose to do so — not because we are right, or because something or someone is

necessarily right for us, but because we are unconsciously using that attachment to
avoid some aspect of our growth.

Avoidance is another form of attachment, only in reverse. With avoidance, we are
attached to not having something, most often attached to our unwillingness to deal
with sticky or messy situations in which we feel inadequate. Almost anything said about
attachment can equally apply to avoidance, and what is being avoided is equally
pertinent to our growth. It is interesting to note that in relationships, one person's
avoidance often becomes another's attachment. These situations can often be
remedied by having both sides move toward the center.

With both attachment and avoidance, there needs to be a willingness to release, a
willingness to either face something or let go. This often needs to happen at the third
chakra ego level, which is most involved with holding on and letting go.
With the silent mind comes a widening of the consciousness and it can turn at will
towards any point in the universal reality to know there what it needs to know.

Higher Power

The modern twelve-step movement, designed to assist people in their recovery from
addictions and other disorders, puts great emphasis on connecting to a higher power.
Many people see this element of the twelve steps as the most essential piece to
recovery, while others find it a turnoff because of their previous experience with religion.
Opening up to a higher power, and to the mystical and transcendental side of spirituality
in general, requires the ability to surrender. Only by surrendering our attachments, our
unworkable belief systems, our addictive habits, and our need to control, can we truly
experience the magnitude of our universal identity. Only then do we open to the
abundant possibilities that exist.

Our earliest experience with higher power came from our parents. As children, they
were like gods — all-powerful, all-knowing. When we were helpless babies, they clothed
and fed us. They were our first teachers, our protectors, our providers. If it was safe to
trust our parents and to surrender to their love and guidance, then the crown chakra is
comfortable opening to a higher power. If childhood was not safe, then surrender
becomes a very difficult thing to allow. Original trust issues must be reexamined in a
new light and reapplied.

Surrendering to a higher power does not require us to relinquish lower states, but does
involve a release of that which separates us from the rest of creation. To surrender is to
release our defenses, to let go of attachment, to trust the universe. As we let go of the
small places we hold so tightly, we are lifted and carried into grace.
Transcendence and Immanence

The crown chakra is a two-way gate to the beyond. It opens outward, beyond ourselves
to the infinite, and it opens inward and downward to the world of visions, creation, and
eventual manifestation. Eastern philosophies stress transcendence as the goal and
essence of the crown chakra, indeed of the chakra system itself. Transcendence is a
cleansing bath in the waters of spirit, a blissful relief from that which binds us to
limitation. The purpose of moving up through the chakras is one of constant
transcendence, where each new plane encompasses the chakra below in a larger
framework. The experience of transcendence is one of liberation.
Transcendence is the path of liberation. Immanence is the path of manifestation. To
embrace them both is to see the divine within and without as an inseparable unity.
Eventually we have to come back down as expansion of consciousness is of greatest
value when applied. Light shining in our eyes can be blinding, but light focused on
something that needs illumination is a blessing. Immanence is the light of divine
consciousness shining out from within. It manifests the presence of the divine within, the
divinity of the Self in its wholeness. From the perspective of immanence, deity exists in

everything living and nonliving. To speak with you is to speak with the God/dess nature
within you. To grow a garden or raise a child is to see deity manifested in its multiple
forms. To speak your truth is to let the deity emanate from within you.
A friend once said to me, "Why bother with creation? Why not just go straight to the
source?" Being a great lover of creation as well as the force behind it, I pondered this a
while. Should one ignore the beauty of the rivers, lakes, and oceans because they are
not the clouds? Should we look only at the sun instead of the delicate play of light in the
flowers? Should we ignore the child and go straight to the mother? If I write a book, do I
want people to ignore it and instead call me on the telephone? Absolutely not! Creation
is the expression of the divine, and it is often more profound, refined, and detailed than
the source itself, which is enormously vast and abstract.

One of the differences between soul and spirit is that the soul is an expression of
immanence within the individual, whereas the spirit seeks transcendence and
universality. The soul is like a gatherer of spirit, forming the abstract into a composite
being. In fact, the spirit may or may not be individual at all as it can take on many forms.
Like consciousness, spirit seems to be a field that we tap into and carry within
ourselves. The soul is enhanced by the presence of spirit, as if spirit is the essence from
which it forms. Spirit is anchored and expressed through soul, which gives it
embodiment, meaning, and purpose. Soul tends toward manifestation and spirit toward
liberation.

To achieve transcendence is to enter the realm capable of embracing the whole. To
bring that divine state of awakened consciousness down into our bodies and act upon it
is to experience immanence. As the vehicle that brings the gods back down to earth,
immanence is the restoration of the sacred.
Embraonqthe Gods

We make our destinies by our choice of gods.

VIRGIL

How would you behave if you knew you were a god or a goddess? How would you treat
yourself, how would you treat others? What kind of consciousness would you hold about
your smallest actions if you knew their effects influenced the entire rest of creation? If
your lapses of consciousness could mean countless deaths? If your awakenings could
bring joy to the multitudes? What kind of mindfulness would that inspire?
I often ask my clients these questions as they pose pertinent inquiries into the nature of
deity. It is my sincere belief that each one of us, and every living thing as well, is an
element of the divine. Unfortunately, our divinity is often forgotten, contracted by fear,
buried in shame and doubt, or confined by the boundaries of the personal ego.
As Stewart Brand says in The Millenium Whole Earth Catalog, "We are as Gods and
might as well become good at it."6 The concept of being an actual god or goddess
opens us to a greater divine force and to a position of greater responsibility. That sense
of responsibility requires enormous commitment to consciousness. It requires us to pay
attention at all times.

How much do we pay attention to the smallest details when we are in the presence of
our beloved? How much do we pay attention to what we put in our bodies when sick?
What do we say when defending something that really matters? These moments
receive our undivided attention because they are special. To embrace the deity within
and realize it is always present is to realize that all moments deserve that kind of

attention.

God is as close to us as we can risk being close to our real self.

The mythological significance of the Rainbow Bridge is that it connects us to the gods.
To walk across the bridge, embracing each step as we go, is to reclaim our connection
to the divine source. The ultimate realization is not merely to connect but to become. In
this way our expansive transcendence becomes immanence. This is the essence of

grace.

The gods of ancient mythology embody archetypal energies that are pure in form and
potent in power. They express the universal one in its infinite emanations. The merging
of consciousness with the omnipresent one is a state of enlightenment that few attain,
and even fewer keep. For most of us, it is far beyond our reach even to glimpse, let
alone to stay there. But to consciously embrace divinity in its infinite manifestations on a
daily basis is an act of worship that elevates our consciousness into the realm of the
sacred. As it says in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:

Whoever worships another divinity than his self, thinking, "He is one, I am another,"
knows not.... One should worship with the thought that he is one's self, for therein all
these become one. This self is the footprint of that All — just as verily, by following a
footprint one may find cattle that have been lost.... He who reverences the self alone as
dear — what he holds dear, verily, will not perish.7

GROWING THE LOTUS

Developmental Formation of the Seventh Chakraata Glance

AGE

Early adulthood and throughout life
TASKS
Intellectual independence

Spiritual connection
Development of worldview
Education
Ego Transcendence
Maturation
Wholeness
NEEDS AND ISSUES

Spiritual freedom
Intellectual stimulation
Spiritual practice

Seventh chakra development builds our cognitive structure, our set of belief systems,

our understanding of the world, and our ability to question and think for ourselves. There
is no concrete developmental stage for this, as it happens in different ways from the
moment of birth until the day we die.

The main activity of this cognitive structure is learning. Through learning we expand our
horizons, master our relationship to objects and persons, and grow toward
understanding and wisdom. Learning constantly adjusts what we know, constantly
upgrades our cognitive matrix.

There is, however, a change in the orientation of what we learn that occurs at various
stages depending on the individual. In the seventh chakra stage we consciously crave
a deeper understanding and connection to the underlying fabric of existence. This is the
spiritual awakening that begins with such basic questions as, "Why are we here?" "What
does it all mean?" "What is the source?" From early childhood on, children may ask
these questions as passing curiosity. "What does it mean that Grandpa died?" asks the

grandson. "What is spirit?" my son used to ask. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Our consciousness does not create itself — it wells up from unknown depths. In
childhood it awakens gradually, and all through life it wakes each morning out of the
depths of sleep from an unconscious condition.

C. G.JUNG

There is a deeper thirsting that also stirs at the onset of adolescence and comes to the
fore when the child is liberated from the family and begins her own life. At this point the
family, which has been the guiding matrix (for better or worse), retreats into the
background of internalized values as the young adult seeks her own operating system.
The absence of the family system creates both the need and the possibility for
something new.

If the crown chakra is healthy, it will naturally seek knowledge throughout life. If the
parents were somewhat relaxed in imposing their own belief system, it is more likely
that a person will remain flexible and allow their beliefs to grow and change. If parents
are fixated in a single belief system, the emerging adult may also fixate at various
places, only upgrading their beliefs when suffering and frustration force them to do so. 8
The difference between sixth and seventh chakra awakening is found in the amount of
ego involved in the questing. Early and middle adolescence may be a time of searching
for an archetypal meaning or identity, but this identity is ultimately a personal one. "Who
am I in the greater scheme of things?" In the seventh chakra, there is a shift beyond ego
as the search for meaning goes above and beyond the Self. Not so much "Who am I?"
but "What does it all mean?"

We either get success or lessons. If we learn our lessons successfully, we get both.
Since most of this expansion and questioning occurs after children leave home, the best
we can do for them is to provide a healthy foundation for the crown chakra. We can do
this by stimulating the intellect and organizing opportunities for learning and
information, such as classes, books, and exposure to new experiences. It is essential
that we give them both permission and encouragement to question, as well as
discussions that answer their questions or help them find their own answers. We can
model the value of learning, thinking, reading, and questioning. We can also model the
practice of spirituality without forcing it. What the child chooses for herself will then be
infinitely more real and of lasting value — we need only make available as broad a range
of choices as possible.

TRAUMAS AND ABUSES

Abuses to the crown chakra are subtle but profound. They occur at any age and in
many ways and fixate the crown chakra in either an open or closed position. This limits
the possibilities for focus and concentration (too open) or for expansion (too closed).

WrTHHOLDINQ INFORMATION, INVALIDATING BELIEFS

A psychoneurosis must be understood, ultimately, as the suffering of a soul which has
not discovered its meaning.... We cannot tolerate lack of meaning.

C. G.JUNG

Children sense, on an intuitive level, everything that is going on around them. They
usually lack the ability to understand what they sense and constantly seek information
to fill in the blanks. Many parents choose to withhold information from a child, believing
it is for their own good. Benny asks where babies come from and he is told, "the stork
brings them." Children ask why Daddy is passed out on the couch and may be shamed
for their questions. Sometimes children ask questions their parents literally cannot
answer and are either told untruths or shamed again. "What do you want to know that
for? What, are you stupid or something?" Rare is the parent who says, "I don't know.
But here is a way you might find out." Children may long to study something their
parents think is a waste of time or inappropriate for their gender. They may be denied
access to information that helps them develop.

After seeing an /Love Lucy rerun on television, a friend's son asked his dad if the world
was in black and white when his dad was a kid. His parents could have laughed and
ridiculed their son for such a silly conclusion, shaming his very thought process. They
might have said, "What a stupid question! What's the matter with you?" or further
humiliated him by talking to another adult, "Honey, can you believe what Johnny just
asked me? He thinks the world's just like the television!" If this happened often enough,
the boy would learn to doubt his own thinking and keep his beliefs to himself. Instead
my friend validated how his son might come to that conclusion, and carefully explained
the difference between black-and-white and color photography.

Children are constantly hungry for knowledge, and withholding it deprives the child of
proper mental nourishment. When information is withheld, the child either makes it up
himself or stops asking. In either case, the searching stops and the crown chakra
ceases to draw in new information and shuts down.

Poor education damages the curious mind. Most of our school systems fail to change as
fast as the culture and poorly stimulate and support a child's natural hunger for
knowledge. Schools too often make learning a tedious, boring task rather than a joyous
exploration.

Spiritual Abuse

When I recently gave a lecture at a New Age convention, I was accosted at the door by
a viciously angry woman with a Bible. She came within inches of my face telling me how
I would go to hell if I so much as entered the hall because it was full of devil
worshippers. She tightly clutched the hand of a freckle-faced, red-haired boy of about
seven, whose eyes were as big with fear as his body was lifeless and pale. I watched
them both for a while as she accosted each attendant who tried to enter, and when I
tried to simply meet the boy's eyes and smile, she roughly pushed him behind her. His
face is forever stamped in my mind.

Children are often forced into unrealistic purity due to their parents' shame. Austere
practices, angry tirades in the name of God, excessive authoritarianism, punitive
practices in the name of religion, insistence upon perfection, and teaching a child that
they are full of sin, all close down the crown chakra, produce shame and fear, and
ensure that this person will have a harder time opening to any kind of spirituality in the
future.

Some children are forced to adopt spiritual belief systems that do not come from their
own unfolding. Take the example of Brian, who from a young age was forced to dress
up in a three-piece suit and accompany his mother daily as she went door-to-door
proselytizing for her church. Brian experienced constant shame as doors were slammed
in his face and as children he knew taunted and teased him. He was not allowed to
celebrate his birthday, Christmas, or any other holidays that were important to his
classmates. He was not old enough for structured spirituality to have any interest or
meaning for him, and what he did experience was negative and unpleasant. When he
struggled with a heroin addiction as an adult, he found the whole idea of turning to a
higher power repulsive and thus denied himself a possible key to his recovery.
Structured religion is often age-inappropriate. Young children do not experience spirit by
sitting on hard pews, listening to words they do not understand, or being frightened into
submission. Children brought up in a healthy and loving environment, however, are
naturally connected to spirit. More often than not, it is adults who have forgotten that
connection who project their alienation onto their children.

If spiritual practice does not include love and respectful regard for the individuality of

another, then I consider it an abusive practice. Children are defenseless against that
abuse. Instead they live in fear, guilt, and shame — demons of the lower chakras that
bind them at these levels. Only by working through these issues can they open to their
own personally fulfilling spirituality. On the other hand, it is also a deprivation not to
expose the child to any religious choices. He needs to be offered a sufficient variety of
spiritual options, or his road to his own spirituality will be made longer.

EXCESS AND DEFICIENCY

Deficiency

To make of the intellect a competent servant instead of an incompetent master must be
a major goal of continuum philosophy.

JEAN LIEDLOFF

If the crown chakra is closed down, the liberating current cannot finish its journey and
we fail to achieve freedom. The transformative energies that rise through the body
cannot come fully to consciousness, and do not get realized (see figure 7.1). Patterns
in our lives will repeat again and again as they continually try to come to consciousness.
Without the awareness of the crown chakra, we are more likely to be ruled by our
unconscious.

THE KNOW-rT-ALL

My client Jane asked her mother to read a book on her religion, which differed from the
one in which she was raised. Her mother refused to read the book, saying she already
knew all she needed to know about God and was not interested. My client was not
trying to change her mother's religion but only wanted her to understand her own views.
How can one claim to know all there is about the infinite?

The opposite of infinite knowledge and possibility is fixation on a single point of view as
the one true right and only way. As the mind closes to new information, skepticism may
become part of the identity. Jane's mother had firm beliefs but refused new knowledge.
John Bradshaw describes this in terms of mystified religion: "Cultic authoritarian religion
creates a kind of cognitive closure. The language is so pat, so clear and rigid, that it
closes off areas that the mind would naturally be stimulated to investigate. "9
THE NEED TO BE RIGHT

I had an extremely bright friend who was "always right." He took it upon himself to tell
everybody around him what they were doing wrong and how they could fix it. He was
very perceptive about certain things, made an excellent critic, and usually, he was
right. Still he was unhappy because few people wanted to be around him. Finally,
someone pointed out that it seemed he would rather be right than happy, rather be right
than have friends. This produced a value shift in his operating system that allowed him
to operate in a new way.

Ql Excess
Everything goes up to the head and
out the top of the crown with little or
no defending current.

o

i i ii Deficiency

Rising current is blocked from completion.
Little or no descending current.

Figure 7.1. Seventh Chakra Excess and Deficiency
Being right supports the delusion that we know everything. It also supports the ego, for
in being right we get to make others wrong and come out smelling like a rose. This only
creates separation and does not reflect the unity and expansion of the crown chakra. If
you catch yourself doing this, stop and ask yourself, "What gives me the final authority
on what's right? Right according to whom?" To accommodate multiple operating
systems is to embrace the fact that there are many ways of being right.
FAILURE TO LEARN

Learning is a process of incorporating change as a result of experience. Without the
liberating current, it may be difficult to change. If the crown chakra is closed down, it
may be difficult to understand or retain new information. If the condition is chronic, there
may be learning difficulties. At other times we are simply too distracted, attached, or
skeptical to be able to learn something new. New information may be resisted because
it erodes our belief systems — if we are overly identified with these beliefs, new
information poses a threat.
BELIEF IN LIMITATIONS

It is amazing how vehemently people will defend their belief in limitations. "There's no
way I'll ever get out of debt." "No matter what I do, I always end up alone." "No one can
go to school while raising kids. I'm stuck in this job forever." Even when you describe
situations where people have broken these limitations, the person will find a reason why
it will not work for them. Belief becomes a self-fulling prophecy. This is another version
of thinking that we know it all, but how can we know all the possibilities in an infinite
universe?

SPIRITUAL SKEPTICISM

Some people are attached to the belief that nothing exists outside of the tangible,
material world, a belief held by the bulk of our scientific establishment for hundreds of
years. When extreme, spiritual skepticism reveals a deficient seventh chakra. If we
cannot open to spirit, we cannot trust a higher power or open to the unknown. When
there is spiritual skepticism, there is a preponderance of doubt, which is one of the five
enemies to mindfulness in Vipassana meditation. (The other four are desire,
restlessness, hatred, and sloth.) However, a certain amount of skepticism is a healthy

thing — in fact, too little discrimination indicates an excessive crown chakra.
Excess

As the crown chakra is so often considered the be-all and end-all of the chakra system,
it may seem odd to think of it as excessive. Once again, we must remember that
excessive does not mean full and open, but overly invested with energy that is used as
a defense (see figure 7.1). Excess in the crown chakra is quite common, as we pull
ourselves up into our heads to avoid feelings and to distance ourselves from worldly
demands. The person who is out of touch with her body and emotions or who feels
powerless or lonely may be, of necessity, sending the unresolved energy up to the
crown. Certainly this is the case with the Schizoid/Creative types, who find their reality
in the world of the mind.

OVERINTELLECTUAUSM ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The intellect does indeed do harm to the soul when it dares to possess itself of the
heritage of the spirit.

C. G.JUNG

Over dinner, Frank rambled on about his latest insights, thinking he was charming us all
by showing off his brilliant intellect. Although quite bright, he failed to notice that
eventually no one was listening. While his wife had an excess to drink, Frank had an
excess in the crown chakra.

"I think therefore I am" characterizes this pattern. The wheels of the mind are always
turning, and such people can be highly intelligent and very knowledgeable. Building on
their strengths, they overdevelop the intellect at the cost of their other parts, such as the
body, emotions, or the heart. The world of the intellect is safe, fascinating, and ego
inflating, but does not necessarily include an intelligence that operates wisely in real-life
situations (just as Frank did not notice how bored his guests were).
Excessive intellectualism is a chronic condition in our Western culture. Showing off what
we know is made a virtue calculated by the number of obscure references, degrees,
and learning institutions cited. Knowledge is power, but can be elusive and distracting if
it is not grounded in wisdom and understanding.
SPIRITUAL ADDICTION

In some cases, spirituality becomes an addiction for the person with an excessive crown
chakra. Used as an escape from some of the more demanding tasks of the lower
chakras, one can run after a guru, thump their Bible on street corners, go to one
meditation retreat after another, or rely on psychedelic drugs to get that spiritual high.
Spiritual purity is another form this addiction can take. Vows of poverty, chastity, and
obedience are vows to keep the first three chakras deficient. Fasting, ascetic practices,
self-annihilation, and endless sacrifice can produce a high as well as an ego-inflating
righteousness.

If these practices are sensibly applied to improving one's life, then the crown chakra is
appropriately doing its job of evolving the soul in its journey. But if a person's life
remains disordered and they escape into spiritual addictions, then their growth is
arrested just as it would be with any addiction.
FEELING OVERWHELMED

When I first compiled all the information for this book, I felt overwhelmed. Even when I
had finished the first draft, I got headaches thinking about how I was going to fit all that
information into a single manuscript. It was hard to think clearly about how to pull it all
together. Too much information, without proper organization, can be overwhelming.
When excess energy flows to the crown (as it does naturally with the Schizoid/Creative
structure, or during stress or crisis), confusion, frustration, or dissociation can result.
This happens to all of us from time to time, but when the stress is chronic, these states
become part of the operating system. Then the crown chakra goes into a state of rapid
free spin, similar to the obsessive state of chakra six. We have an excess of energy in

the head but cannot think straight. We have too much information, yet do not know what
to do. Many people get headaches when this happens, as the upward pressure builds
up at the crown, unreleased. When the body is frozen, it is less able to handle a charge,
and the excess goes to the head, where it creates confusion. At this point, it is time to
do some grounding, meditation, or vigorous exercise to calm or discharge the excess
energy.
PSYCHOSIS

Psychotic disturbances arise from a vast range of causes, and there is no simple
statement that can be made toward their cure. They are mentioned here simply to place
them in perspective as generally revealing an excess in the upper chakras. When
feeling overwhelmed becomes a severe and chronic state, then the organization of the
operating system may break down entirely. A person may approach or develop
psychosis.

The lower chakras are primarily the realm of neurotic disturbances. I define neurotic
behavior as those patterns we continually repeat even though they fail to work. Neurotic
patterns are fueled by drives that have not yet come to consciousness, and are thus
restricted to repetition. Psychotic disturbances, by contrast, are characterized by a
break from reality and from the grounded aspects of the lower chakras. They most often
manifest as a lack of predictable patterns and a failure to contain one's energy
appropriately. Therefore, psychosis is an excess of the upper chakras, where the fifth,
sixth, and seventh chakras manifest as voices, hallucinations, or delusional belief
systems. Psychosis is an excess of the liberating current with too little grounding,
which results in a lack of focus and containment. Neurosis is a deficiency of the
liberating current with too little conscousness, which results in compulsive repetition.

RESTORING THE LOTUS

Healwqthe Sevbtoh Chakra

Integrate around the convulsions of the mental and vital ego? As welt moor a boa
tail of an eel.

SRI AUROBINDO

Restoration of the seventh chakra is about awakening to the reality of our spiritual
nature. As we eliminate the demons of fear, guilt, shame, grief, lies, illusions, and
attachments, we are liberated from the habitual patterns of our thoughts and are free to
experience consciousness as an infinite source. This realization brings dissolution of
our separateness and insight into deeper levels of truth. Like the sixth chakra, it is less a
matter of healing than it is of developing a capacity that has previously been asleep. If
there is healing involved, it is to remove ourselves from the constant demands of the
outside world, rid ourselves of false beliefs, and experience a personal and direct
connection with divine source — in whatever form it may speak to us. We open this
chakra by developing the capacity for stillness and concentration, for which there is no
better tool than meditation.
MEDITATION

Meditation is a technique for energizing, calming, and clarifying the mind. Its purpose is
to train the mind to enter subtler states of consciousness and transcend the petty
concerns that usually occupy the mind, allowing us to access a deeper, grander state of
awareness. Of all the methods for healing and developing the crown chakra, meditation
is perhaps the most potent tool available. If universal consciousness is the system in
which we are all embedded, and the mind an organizer of its components, then a
technique that brings calm, order, and clarity to that mind also brings order and clarity to
everything else as well. Those who practice meditation on a regular basis usually report
an increased level of functioning in many aspects of their life, not just their thinking
processes. Increased physical health and well-being, greater productivity in their work,
better concentration, increased creativity, and more personal satisfaction are some of

the effects that have been reported. 10

There are countless techniques that one can use to obtain a meditative state. The
following shows the broad range of techniques possible (but is not an exhaustive list).
For those who say they cannot meditate, perhaps a different technique will help.

■ Nonspecified, free-flowing movement, either as a quiet flow (Authentic Movement) or a rapid discharge
(Rajneesh's Chaotic Meditation)

■ Regulating and watching one's breath

■ Gazing at an image, such as a flame, mandala, or symbol

■ Uttering a mantra, phrase, or affirmation

■ Observing the witness

■ Following one's thoughts

■ Walking silently and mindfully

■ Concentrating on a concept or problem (such as the Zen koan "What is the sound of one hand
clapping?")

■ Intent listening to sounds or to music

■ Visualizing moving energy up and/or down your body (running energy)

■ Guided visualizations or trance journeys

■ Simply relaxing and letting oneself be receptive to whatever comes through.

You will notice that some methods involve a concentrative meditation, where one
focuses attention on a particular device, such as sound, image, or activity, for the
purpose of making the mind one-pointed and shutting out all distractions. Other
methods are receptive meditations, where one opens to the flow of thoughts, feelings,
or impulses and follows wherever it might lead. There are three general stages in
concentrative meditation, as described by Patanjali's Yoga Sutras: Ydharana
(concentration), dhyana (meditation or merging), and samadhi (ecstasy). 11 In
concrete terms, this involves focusing awareness on an object, allowing it to merge with
the object, and experiencing the state of mind that arises when total absorption occurs
and there is no longer a sense of subject and object, but only a sense of being.
(Receptive meditation is described more fully in the section on mindfulness.)
The techniques that work best are subject to your basic character and needs at the
time. If you are trying to calm your thoughts in a crisis, it may help to count your breaths,
as even, regular breaths will calm the body. If it is so difficult to sit still that you do not
meditate at all, you might try a moving or walking meditation. If your mind has a lot of
chatter, you might try a mantra meditation, which sets up a rhythmic entrainment in your
mind that brings harmony to your thoughts and actions. If you are trying to cleanse
yourself of the stress you bring home from work, it is helpful to run energy through the
body, as if taking a shower in sensation and light.

Meditation can have profound results. As our thoughts often keep us engaged in
repetitive patterns and limited beliefs, meditation can yield a mental silence that allows
us to access a deeper wisdom, a deeper state of consciousness. As we quiet the mind,
we have the option to disengage our habitual responses — anger or judgment, fear or
desire — and free ourselves from these patterns. As we disengage, we become lighter,
emptier, and more able to access the transcendental states of universal consciousness.
Meditation can bring previously buried unconscious material from the lower chakras into
consciousness. Thus meditation also serves the ascending, liberating currents as it
refines our vibrations chakra by chakra, yielding deeper understanding and self-
knowledge. Once we allow the constant chatter of the mind to subside, the deeper
whisperings underneath emerge, just as dreams do when our conscious mind is asleep.
What we have not conquered in the past returns again and again, each time with slightly
different faces but fundamentally always the same, until we have confronted the ancient
knowledge and untied it.

SATPREM

Emerging material from the unconscious can produce various results, however. We may
be bombarded with feelings, sensations, or information we are not equipped to handle,
or we might be freed of material that was unconsciously holding us back. If our work in

the lower chakras has formed a foundation for higher consciousness, we will have the
tools and context necessary for handling difficult material. If not, we can go to someone
trained to help. In my opinion, it is not advisable to simply ignore it (as some spiritual
teachers might advise), but to use the information to work through the knots of our
psychic being. They may have somatic (physical), emotional, or symbolic aspects. I also
want to stress that I am referring here to the larger pieces of material. It is not necessary
to seek help for everything that comes through — just those things that repeat or have a
strong psychic charge.

Meditation can also serve the descending current of manifestation. This is the aspect
that Sri Aurobindo called the transforming force. It is that which begins where other
yogas end, illumining at first the summit of our being, then descending from level to
level, gently, peacefully, irresistibly. It is this which will universalize our entire being,
right down to the lowest layer.

Descending meditation reaches into the superconscious layer above the head and pulls
down the force of awareness chakra by chakra, nourishing each center from the infinite
source above. As we are bringing higher consciousness to lower centers, we are
bringing a numinousness into our body, which results in immanence and grace in our
being. It is this descent of consciousness that we will examine in the final chapter.
Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the essential key to living a conscious life. It is the fundamental quality to
cultivate in the crown chakra, for it becomes the lens that guides the journey as well as
the healing salve for the scrapes and bruises that we get along the way. Most of those
scrapes occurred because of a lack of mindfulness.
Mindfulness ... has to do with examining who we are, with questioning our view of the

Z

orld and our place in it, and with cultivating some appreciation for the fullness of eac
nt we are alive. Most of al

ment we are alive. Most of all, it has to do with being in touch.

Mindfulness means paying attention. It involves noticing the subtle flavors and textures
of each moment and appreciating their many interwoven levels of meaning without
getting attached to any particular one. Mindfulness takes our entire awareness into the
present moment, enabling full experience. In that fullness, mindfulness brings us
satisfaction in life as we are immersed in the incredible richness of each moment.
Mindfulness does not forget the past or the future but brings them together in the
present. We keep them consciously in sight as ways to enhance the meaning of the
present. If I am watching a client have a breakthrough, my knowledge of where they
have been and the freedom they will soon experience enhances the power of that
moment. I do not need to rush to the past or future, but simply be with them in their
present experience, knowing that it will take them where they need to go. Mindfulness
underlies the concept "Waiting Is" (from Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land).
In waiting, we are not putting our attention on the future, but experiencing the perfection
of the unfolding present.

Mindfulness has many enemies, including dissociation, presumptions, numbness,
impatience, fear, and all the demons of the chakras. Each of these enemies
disconnects us from our experience of the present, occupying valuable disk space in
our operating system. Each is a defense against the power of conscious living, which
requires both sensitivity and responsibility. When we operate by habit, we allow our
mind to disconnect and are no longer engaged in the present. When we operate on
presumption, we are not allowing the present moment to unfold uniquely. When numb,
we shut off valuable information and rob ourselves of the fullness of experience. If we
are impatient, we are rushing to the future, not realizing how rich the present is. If we
are afraid, we cannot fully engage and instead contract our attention.

imit ourselves to paying attention in an open way, without falling prey to

our own likes and dislikes, opinions and prejudices, projections and expectations, new
possibilities open up and we have a chance to free ourselves from the straightjacket of
unconsciousness.

JOHN KABAT-ZINN

Mindfulness brings us an immensity of information. Its enemies constrict information,
leaving us with half-truths, misunderstandings, partial pictures, ignorance, and false
impressions. Full information is equal to intelligence. To live intelligently is to avoid
suffering and live with grace and ease.

Mindfulness does not have to do anything— \t is instead a state of observation. It does
not judge, value, negate, or applaud. It simply witnesses.
EXERCISE TO DISCOVER THE WITNESS

This can be done in meditation (followed by journal writing) or in conversation with
another. The purpose is to disconnect from our normal vantage point long enough to
recognize the reality of the essential self underneath.

Mediation Method: Choose a scene, story, or situation that has an emotional charge for
you, one that has brought you difficulty. Let the scene run through your mind as if you
were watching a video and had a remote control unit in your hand, from which you may
pause, rewind, or fast-forward at any time. Watch the drama from the eyes of the
witness.

Simply begin at the beginning, observing your baseline state of being, and let the drama
play while you observe your reactions. When you get to a part that affects you strongly,
push the imaginary pause button. Stop and observe your reaction. What is going on in
your body? What are your feelings? What are your sensations? What meaning do you
derive from your feelings? What are your impulses?

In a journal, write down your answers as if you were describing a third person. "She is
feeling very nervous. Her palms are sweaty, and she feels afraid that someone is going
to criticize her. She wants to run away." Then you can return to the movie and play out
the next scene, repeating the same steps. Stop whenever there is a charge and record
your experience. Notice that it is the witness who does the observation and writing.
After you have run through the scene, it is time to meet the witness. In the first person,
write the viewpoint of the witness. What observations does the witness want to share
about this person? What does it notice? What truths are apparent here? The witness
might say, "I'm surprised she's so nervous. I see that she's afraid, but I want to tell her
there's no real danger. She's done this job successfully many times before."
It is important to remember that the witness is not the judge. If the critic wants to appear
in the guise of the witness, merely turn the witness on the critic. For example, if you find
yourself writing, "She looks pretty stupid up there being so scared," then you know your
critic has taken over the witness stand. Let the witness then observe and write about the
critic. "I see that there is a need to pass judgment. I see that there is someone who
does not understand her fear." We can witness our witnesses in multiple layers until we
get to an objective core Self. This core Self has much wisdom. We know it when we
find it.

Wrm Another: Pick a scene, story, or situation that troubles you. Sit opposite a friend or
therapist and tell them about it in the first person, sharing your feelings and thoughts.
The listener merely acknowledges but does not interrupt. When you are finished, go sit
next to the friend and retell the story in the third person, from the perspective of an
objective witness. "She then had to go down and confront her boss, and this made her
really angry. She did not like being angry because anger has always gotten her into
trouble in the past."

As a final step, the friend can ask the witness for any further observations or insights
about the person, and what the witness may have experienced while watching.
Higher Selp

When we cannot see our way out of the forest, we may need to climb to the top of the
mountain to get a clearer view. Having regained our bearings, we can then chart a
course that takes us where we want to go. By the same token, communing with the
Higher Self can give us valuable insight when we cannot see our way through a difficult
situation. Often, it just requires a change in perspective.

There are many opinions about just what the Higher Self might be. Some say it is
communing with divine intelligence, God or Goddess, disembodied masters who act as
guides, or an unconscious aspect of our own mind. Others say that it is just another
aspect of the Self — the one that emerges naturally when the needs and wishes of the
lower chakra identities have fallen away (see Transcending the Lower Egos, this
page). How we define it is of little importance, for it remains an unprovable mystery.
What is important is that it is an archetype that allows us to receive information. That
information can then be used for healing and guidance to bring us closer to wholeness.
EXERCISE FOR GUIDANCE FROM THE HIGHER SELF: TALKING TO GOD OR
GODDESS

With a Friend or Counselor: Create a mental image of your concept of deity. It may be a
round, stout Earth Mother, an old man with a white beard, a bright star, a fountain of
light, or an astral cloud. It does not matter as long as it is an image you can relate to,
one that carries wisdom and compassion for you. Describe your image of deity to your
friend.

Next, think of an issue in which you seek guidance. Phrase your concern in terms of a
question that can be posed to this higher being. "What is it that I need to understand in
this difficult situation I'm in?" "How do I find out where my path needs to go right now?"
It is helpful to ask "mature" questions, rather than petty ones like, "Does he love me?"
After all, we are talking to a deity and we do not want to waste its time. Then tell your
friend your question.

After you have described your deity and named your question, change places with your
friend. Imagine now that you are this God/dess you have envisioned. Really feel it;
immerse yourself in the experience. When you feel fully connected to this image, allow
your friend to ask you, as God/dess, the question you raised earlier. Then allow yourself
to answer as the deity might. Speak to your friend as if she were you. Have her
remember and record what you say.

Alone: If you would like to do this exercise alone, you can play both parts yourself.
Image your concept of God/dess, and write your question on a piece of paper. Allow
yourself to take on the God/dess form and read the question. Answer as you would
above, either remembering the answer or allowing a tape recorder to record it. Then do
some journal writing on whatever has come through.

NONATTACHMENT

It is fine and good to say that we should practice nonattachment as a way to lessen
suffering and become mindful. But how do we do this when we are really attached to
something? How do we unhook and return to our wholeness? If we force ourselves to
avoid thinking about something, we are only increasing our attachment by the very effort
of avoidance.

JOURNAL EXERCISE TO LOOSEN ATTACHMENT

Close your eyes and drop down into your body. Think of your object of attachment and
the pain you have over losing it. Allow yourself to sink into that discomfort, into the
sadness, into whatever feelings it brings up. Contact your witness as you observe
yourself in these feelings. What does your witness notice?

Next, write down exactly what it is you are attached to, and the many levels of
attachment that may go with it. For instance, if you are attached to a person, write down
not only the person's name, but the qualities that are important to you. Write down the
parts of the relationship to which you are attached, the things you find especially hard to

let go of. Then, write down the parts of yourself that benefit from these qualities that
you think you may be losing. If it is a job opportunity you are attached to, write down the
things you expected that job to bring. Are you attached to success, money, prestige, or
benefits? What part of you especially needs these things?

You can also get attached to sets of feelings. Perhaps you are attached to the feeling of
victimization and anger that a situation brings up for you, and now you are attached to
the resentment. Maybe you are attached to being right, to winning, or to doing
something a certain way.

Once you have become clear about just what it is you are attached to, allow your
witness to listen to the stories you are telling yourself about this loss. Perhaps you think
it is your only opportunity to get something, or perhaps you think you will never be whole
without it, never be able to love again, create again, have freedom again. Listen to
these stories and let your witness assess their accuracy. Sort out the feelings from the
truth. Write down the truth next to these statements when you can.
Next make a list of what this attachment is costing you. How much of your energy gets
invested here, and where does that energy come from? If you had that energy back,
what would be a more appropriate thing to do with it? If your job was taking you away
from your family, see if you can imagine taking that energy back and putting it into your
family. If your habit was costing you your health, imagine transferring that energy to
healthier practices. If your relationship was interfering with your job, imagine putting that
energy back into your work.

Finally, write down reasons why a higher wisdom may have separated you from this
attachment. Find a form of God/dess to talk to (see exercise, this page) and ask them
to illuminate the meaning of this loss. It may bring forth an old childhood wound that
needs healing; or it may teach you compassion; it may guide you in another direction.
How can you apply this lesson?

When the journal work is done, it is time to go into meditation and withdraw the energy
from your attachment and transfer it to more appropriate places. With your eyes closed,
return for a moment to the feeling you had or would have had if life had gone as you
planned it (i.e., without the loss of this attachment). Soak your cells in that feeling.
Notice what you like about it — the high excitement, the sense of completion, or
importance.

He who knows others is wise, but he who knows himself is enlightened.

LAO TZU

Next, in your mind's eye, move this object, person, or event back from yourself, making
a clear separation. Thank it for the lessons it brought you. As it moves away, imagine
that you are unhooking chords of energy, like taking the hook out of a fish you are
throwing back in the water. Reel in these chords, pulling the energy back into your
immediate field. Next, call in images of the things you need to give energy to. See your
family, your work, your health, or whatever is most appropriate receiving new amounts
of energy from you. Pull these things into your field and let the chords of energy connect
with them instead. If there is still a feeling of emptiness, think of ways you might fill
it — activities, practices, or other people with whom you can spend time. Allow the good
feeling you began with to return as you imagine these other elements in your life. Soak
your cells in this feeling, and from this place of strength, say good-bye to whatever
needs to be released. You will now be in a larger, fuller place. Thou Art That! (With
small adjustment, this meditation and journal exercise can be used equally for
avoidance instead of attachment, as they are two sides of the same coin.)
Transcending the Lower Egos

Opening the crown chakra is like taking off our clothing and experiencing the joy of
being naked. The following meditation helps us drop the sheaths of identity associated
with the lower chakras and embrace our universal identity.

Sit quietly in a comfortable meditation posture. Take a few deep breaths and allow
yourself to let go of external distractions. With each inhalation, bring your attention
inside yourself. With each exhalation, let go of the external world — anything that worries
you, anything that is not part of this exercise, or is not part of the present moment.
When you feel comfortably centered, you may begin.

Step One: Let go of anything that is not your body. The body lives in present time and
is a boundary between inner and outer worlds. As you let go of all that is not your
body, allow your awareness to come fully into your body. Feel its length, its solidity, its
width. Feel its edges and boundaries, insides and outsides. Feel it as the home you live
in, as the cloak of the spirit and soul that makes them feel warm and safe.
Now feel the part that is sensing your body. Feel the presence of the resident dweller
inside your body. Allow yourself to embrace that resident, embrace its energy, its
existence. Think about how your body has changed shape over the years and how the
resident has always remained. Notice how they are not the same. Ask the resident to
come with you on a journey. Thank the body for holding you and allow yourself to go
deeper.

Step Two: Now allow yourself to feel the emotions inside your body. What are you
feeling right now? Feel the swirl of longings and fears, of joy and pain, and witness for a
moment the extent of all the emotions that you experience in the course of a day, week,
year, or lifetime. Feel the person inside who experiences these emotions. Imagine that
these emotions are like a ride in an amusement park, full of ups and downs. Feel the
indwelling spirit as the one who goes on the ride, but separate from the ride itself. Feel
the choice that can be made about going on the ride. Allow yourself to say no to the
ride, to disconnect and go someplace new, to go on a different ride. Embrace the inner
Self and let the emotional body settle into the physical body. Prepare to move on.
Step Three: Now allow yourself to view, like watching a movie, the activities that you go
through in your life. See yourself doing tasks at work, making supper, going for a walk.
See yourself in your actions and reactions. Allow yourself to see the person that
responds. See how many of those reactions are automatic, how many are based in
emotions, how many are just physical habits. See how much the ego is hooked into
these actions. Who is it that is doing these things? Allow yourself to see the person who
acts and reacts as separate from the actions themselves. See the actions as choices.
Allow yourself to choose nonaction. Embrace the indwelling spirit and let the actions fall
away. Prepare to move on.

Step Four: See yourself interacting with others. Take a moment to see yourself as they
see you, as if you are watching from their eyes. What kind of person do you see? What
is the role that he or she tends to play? Are there many different roles? Now see
yourself from inside like a puppet master working the strings of a puppet, conducting the
persona. See how the person behind the role is not quite the same as the role itself.
Who is it that is playing that role? Embrace the puppet master and let the persona fall
away. Prepare to move on.

Step Five: Now see before you the things that you have created in your lifetime. See the
school projects, the interior decor of your home, the artistic endeavors, the business
projects, the events you generated, and even the situations that you have created. See
the / that did the work of those creations, whether they were good or bad. See the /
as a generator that can create many more things, but as something separate from the
creations themselves. Acknowledge all you have done and allow yourself to leave those
creations behind. Prepare to move on.

Step Sdc: Now see yourself as floating on a sea of archetypal energies, riding on the
waves as each one peaks and falls, carrying you with it. See the archetypal forces that
have run through your life — the cultural energies of male and female, the presence or
absence of the shadow, the dance of archetypes in your family, your relationships. Feel

how the culture has influenced the shape of this archetypal flow. Feel how you, in turn,
are trying to shape it. See the thrust of your life as part of an archetypal urge to
complete — maybe as the Hero, the Teacher, the Rebel, or the Lover. See how you have
embraced this archetypal motif and how you have carried it, how it has carried you. See
how these archetypal motifs are culturally influenced — that the culture is the sea with its
waves rising and falling with different periods of history. Realize that there is still another
presence within that has gone on this great ride — one that is separate from the
archetypal energy, one that may have ridden many different waves over millennia of
lifetimes, one that can choose which ride to go on. Allow yourself to let go of these
energies and rise out of the sea. Prepare to move on.

Step Seven: Feel the presence that has gone with you on this journey. Feel the
lightness that comes when the body, the emotions, the actions, the persona, the
projects, and the archetypal forces drop away. Allow yourself to expand beyond the
earth, beyond the solar system, beyond the galaxy, and feel the connection with all of
creation. Feel yourself as divine intelligence, pure awareness, as God or Goddess. See
how small the other identities look from this perspective. Embrace the Self that still
remains. This is your ultimate reality. Thou Art That.
Examining Our Belief Systems

As we expand our consciousness, our belief systems grow and expand. The greatest
enemy to that expansion is the limiting beliefs we carry, such as "I can't do it. It'll never
happen. It is impossible, illogical, I don't deserve it. You can't. I never, etc., etc., etc."
What we in fact discover is that anything is possible. Impossibility negates the infinite
potential of spirit.

Psyche and world form an inseparable unity rather than an irreconcilable duality.

C.G.JUNG

To examine our belief systems, we need to follow our thoughts from conception back to
their source. When I examine my beliefs, I might ask, "When did I first get that idea?"
And then, "Where did those thoughts come from at the time? And those thoughts,
before that?" Eventually we work our way through the outer influences of parents,
peers, literature, or loved ones, to where we ask ourselves: "Is this really a belief that I
have constructed of my own experience?" We can further ask which aspects of our
experience led to this belief, and if our experience contradicts it, what is a more
appropriate belief? Moreover, what beliefs did we bring to that experience at the time
that may have influenced our interpretation? The process may indeed be labyrinthine,
but it eventually leads to a deeper core experience. Released from the cloak of beliefs
and interpretations, we are more directly connected with inner truth.
Education and Information

One of the purposes of consciousness is to bring us information to conduct our lives.
The seventh chakra feeds on information, just as the first chakra feeds on food and
touch or the fourth chakra on love. If the chakra is deficient, then it needs to be fed. If
we find ourselves confused and ignorant, unable to think for ourselves, or not knowing
which way to turn, then maybe we need more information.

Information can come in a variety of ways. It can come from teachers we meet along the
path, from our Higher Self, from books, institutions, experience, and exploration. But the
main thrust of the life force — indeed of evolution itself (simplistically stated) — is to
become smarter, to obtain more and more information, and incorporate that information
into ever more sophisticated systems of understanding.

Therefore, it behooves us to feed ourselves with information as a way of enhancing the
crown chakra. Consider taking a new course of study or reading some new books.
Tackle a subject that interests you and learn all you can about it. Working through this
book or any good course of therapy is a way to learn about yourself and decipher the
mysteries within. Knowledge of the world around us and the world within us are both

paths to the mastery of self-knowledge, the goal of the seventh chakra.

RhJGHONAND SPIRflUAUTY

The elevation of psychic wholeness occurs only when energy previously
srnal deity is withdrawn and returned

The word religion comes from the Latin, religare, which means "to re-connect." Ideally,
its purpose is to facilitate a reconnection with spirit, with soul, and the vital and eternal
aspects of life. Religion is the psychic structure many have chosen as the vehicle for
connection, as an over-arching operating system that holds a set of instructions for
dealing with the world. Religion can be the activity of the crown chakra in the same way
that going to work every day can be the structure of chakra one.
While an adequate discourse on the topic of religion is too much for this chapter, I
mention it here because it is one of the many petals of the seventh lotus, a powerful
psychic structure that either liberates or imprisons our crown chakra. As a belief system,
religion can obscure our experience or it can open us to wider vistas.
The drive toward religion comes from each of the chakras. For some it may come from
a need for security (chakra one), or emotional fulfillment (chakra two), or a sense of
power, community, or creative expression (chakras three, four, and five). For others it
brings illumination or a chance to contact the ultimate source, however we experience
that to be (chakras six and seven).

While respecting the seventh chakra right to choose one's own form of religion, I do feel
compelled to mention that, within the context of any religion, one can adapt the outer
structure of the religion as a defense. Religion negates spirituality when it becomes a
structure for denying our feelings, avoiding the challenges of life, controlling others, or
for ego-inflating righteousness. These are the traps of religion, the demons of
attachment that parade as moral fortitude and obscure true spirituality.
On the positive side, religion does give us a structure, and, even more important, a
practice, whereby we can let go and open ourselves to deeper states of experience,
awareness, and understanding. It also gives us community and the support that comes
from friends on a similar path. That support can be invaluable in times of crisis and
difficulty or when the path seems most obscure. Practices such as meditation, singing in
a choir, rituals, puja (offering), yoga, or community service ground religious values in
real life experience. They are the walk that goes with the talk, the bones that allow the
body to have a meaningful and solid form. Religion without a practice is but a set of
ideas and concepts. Religion with a practice (or even a practice without a religion) is
an active experience that can further the evolution of the soul and the world in which it
lives.

CONCLUSION
Restoration of the Sacred

_JHE MANY SHADES OF THE RAINBOW

Along our journey from birth to wherever we are right now, we encounter obstacles

and difficulty. The traumas and abuses we suffer as children, the lack of consciousness
with which we operate, the blind spots of our culture — all these serve to shut us down
and twist our path off its basic course. Yet, the archetype of the Self contains the
program to become whole, much like a seed contains the program to become a flower.
Each time we work through a piece of our past, we return to the original pattern and pick
up our evolutionary process from where it was interrupted. We reclaim a piece of our
body's reality, and so reclaim a piece of the temple. We break down the barriers that
keep us from experiencing love, barriers that obscure the truth of our divine nature. We
break through the illusions that keep us from seeing clearly, from deep understanding.
Enlightenment or awakening is not the creation of a new state of affairs

Each piece we reclaim unfolds a petal of a chakra. Some pieces unfold several petals,
or maybe several chakras, and bring deep restoration. Each piece allows us to live a
fuller and richer life — bringing us deeper meaning about ourselves and the world in
which we are embedded.

It is not so much a matter of trying to get somewhere as it is removing the blocks to
seeing that we are already there. The goal is not to climb to the crown chakra as quickly
as we can, thinking our journey comes to an end in some conceptual enlightenment, but
to be as conscious as possible about the entire journey — to bring as much depth and
wisdom as we can to each and every level. Even if we do manage to uncover the
obstacles that keep us from the cosmic realization of our divine and universal Self, even
if we do manage to find some kind of enlightenment for moments, days, or years, what
then? Is there not a world around us lost in despair and crying for wisdom? Is there not
a life yearning to be fully lived?
The Return Trip

The psychic realization or discovery of the soul is not then the end for the seeker, it is
only the very small beginning of another voyage which is made in consciousness
instead of in ignorance.

SRI AUROBINDO

Having climbed to the top in our journey thus far, we now begin the descent of
consciousness. This, you will remember, is our manifesting current. As we all know, the
landmarks on a return trip look a bit different from the first time around. As we unfold the
chakras developmentally, from the base to the crown, our energy evolves into ever
more efficient and complex levels. At each level we encounter a kind of realization: The
infant gradually realizes that he is a separate being; the lover realizes that his partner
has a reality different from his own; the visionary has a sudden flash of intuition and
realizes some new perspective.

As we grow up, we simultaneously meet energy coming down from the top. We have
said how pure awareness meets the body and allows us to operate it, that visual
awareness stimulates movement and desire, and that language allows us to control our
actions and conceptualize a self beyond immediate needs and impulses. How is this
different in the journey downward?

In the journey up, we have access to the raw properties of the upper chakras, such as
visual perception or language, but we are not yet organized on those levels. Our
center does not operate from that state. The infant sees, but does not have a
storehouse of images from which to make sense of what he sees. The toddler babbles,
but does not yet think about what he is saying. The child loves, but does not yet
understand the intricacies of relationships. You might say the access to the upper

chakras is unconscious — it filters down, but we do not live there. We get a paycheck
from the boss, but we do not own the company.

The journey upward allows us to access higher levels of organization and complexity,
each one a new realization, a shift in perspective, a transformation. In the journey
downward, however, we bring that higher awareness into our lower chakra activities.
Instead of forming our decisions by feelings, we can base them on principles. Instead of
repeating impulsive patterns, we can devise a strategy. Instead of merely discovering
who we are, we can create who we are. Our principles, strategies, and creations
include the lower levels, embellishing rather than denying them.

The energy coming up from the ground is dynamic and expansive. It is the energy
stored in matter, full of potential for transformation into heat, light, activity. The energy
coming down from the top is systematic and calm. It organizes, orders, governs. Yet
without energy coming up from the bottom, there is nothing to organize, nothing to
govern. Without energy coming down from the top, the ground energy turns into chaos
and dissipates into nothingness.

Figure 8.1 shows how the chakras might appear once full realization has occurred.
The crown chakra is not merely a state of understanding, but a state of being.
Consciousness is not a thing, but an experience. When we have fully arrived at this
level, without denying or skipping over the levels below, we have arrived at a fully
conscious state of being. What we can then bring down to the sixth chakra is not just an
ability to see, but illumination. Illumination is like using an overhead light instead of a
flashlight, where we see the whole instead of a part. With the understanding gained in
the seventh chakra, we not only see the whole but also know what to make of it. As my
friend and colleague Jack Ingersoll has said, "Vision transforms illusion into
enchantment."1 From illumination we create true vision.

Illumination brings inspiration to our creativity. Instead of unfolding our creative process
by trial and error, we create from a place of vision. Our words have wisdom, clarity, and
purpose. We know what we want to communicate. We understand what is being said,
on an archetypal and a literal level.

When we bring our awakened consciousness down to the heart chakra, we bring the
understanding necessary for compassion. Understanding allows us to see beyond our
own needs in a relationship. We are able to bring the objective witness to our struggling
process within, or to the trials of another. The wisdom to create lasting relationships is
gained from experience and working through our own material. The calm that comes
when the upper chakra awareness descends brings stability to our loving. Centered and
balanced in ourselves, we demand less from our partner.

13

Understanding

Insight

Creativity

Love

Energy

Movement

Matter

Being

Illumination

Inspiration

Compassion

Transformation

Connection

Manifestation

2

I

c

Figure 8.1. The Complete Journey
When we bring consciousness to our power, we have not only activity, but directed
transformation. Instead of blindly acting through trial and error, we now use our
intelligence to create a strategy. We make a plan to guide our actions. With vision,
inspiration, communication, and love, we can energize that plan and direct it with clear
intent.

We can now bring new awareness to our emotions and sexuality, deepen the texture of
our experience, and broaden our understanding. We meet emotions with compassion.
We express our sexuality with love and communication. The impulse to reach out can
now make solid connections with emotional rapport, sensate awareness, new levels of
empathy.

Finally, at the base chakra, these qualities become a part of our ability to
manifest — where our conception, vision, inspiration, compassion, transformation, and
connection enter into physical reality. We bring an expansive awareness deep into the
body with love, connection, feeling, and aliveness. For it is indeed consciousness that
makes the body fully alive, and the body that gives consciousness a place to live.
You may be thinking that this is all too ideal. How many people achieve total
consciousness? Do we have to wait for enlightenment to have any of these qualities? I
certainly hope not, or it would be very discouraging.

Enlightenment comes in pieces. It happens a little bit every day. Each time we have
even a small insight, we have an expansion of consciousness that can then be applied
wherever it is needed. Each time a feeling comes to consciousness, an image
communicates meaning, a relationship gives us a lesson, or a success or failure gives
us feedback about our actions, we gain a piece of wisdom that we can bring down
through our chakras. Though we have talked about the chakras individually, remember
that we are a complete, indivisible system. What affects one part affects the whole. As
we change ourselves, so do we change the world.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

As you have been reading this book, you may have found yourself saying, "Boy, I really need to work

on this one." "That sounds like my wife or husband; he's an excessive this or that." "I'd like to use some of
this with my clients." If so, you have probably already been doing some of the work by just getting an idea
of where the issues are. You may have a sense of where you are blocked or strong, what is excessive or
deficient. You now need to look at each chakra in relationship to the others. It is time to embrace the
whole.

Make an Assessment

The following describes a method for assessing which chakras are excessive or deficient, and listing the
issues of concern.

To begin, take a piece of paper and divide it into four columns labeled Issues, Strengths, Excess, and
Deficiency. Next, go through the lists at the beginning of each chapter, and write down the words that
apply to you. You may even come up with issues that are not listed, which is fine if you feel like it belongs
in that chakra. Feel free to emphasize or qualify where appropriate. This is your statement — it is not a
standardized personality test.2 To double-check your results, have a friend who knows you well do an
assessment of you, then compare.

This not only gives you an analysis of your overall pattern, but also provides a graphic list of the issues
you need to work on, including the strengths you can rely on while doing this work.
Figure 8.2, on the following page, is a verbatim example from a volunteer.

Figure 8.2. Assessment Example

CHAKM

STI£N6IKi

EXCEii

Ot FICtENCV

None

Good belief

Overly
LineUrcrual

Love imminence
and transcendence

li„
dirlui-lOMj]

Love the beyond,
through the iiargate

Presence of Divinity

Six

Not
re m onbcn n g
dreams

My be*
chakn!

Nearsighted

Intuitive

Memory?

Can think
symbolically

Fair memory

Good at

VllUjllJJtHlll

Finding my
own voice

Good li-stencr

Talk too much

Fcai of

Neck hum

Good ungcr

Interrupting

i'.iti wnlf well

Too loud

FOUR

ALL!

Devotion

□□dependency

1 sol jtmn

tUkuomlup

Love *nd nun

Poor boundaries

Narcttuvn

Irmnucy

Tin- heart

Cling] ng

^elf-low

Empathetic

Jralnuw

Caring

Overry wicri firing

Thru

Sclf-eiteem

Responsible

Need to be right

Passive

Reliable

[Till

Need

Good wial dulls

Emotional

Fear of sen

Movement

Ernooom is illirt

Dependency?

Clumsy

Oni

T(UH

Good health

Hoarding
(pack rat)

Manifesting

Family

l'i i..-- • i!

Focus and
discipline?

Doundiries

Grounded

1 ^or^aiuit'd

Looking at this assessment, many things are readily apparent. There are far more characteristics listed
for chakras four through seven, so the overall energy is stronger in the upper chakras. Chakras six and
seven are clearly the strongest, so those strengths can be used to work on the lower chakras. The lower
chakras are weaker, with the avoidant and compensating responses of deficiency and excess clearly
apparent.

This person does not inhabit her lower chakras very much. Since the lower chakras are less developed
and the upper chakras are strong, it is no surprise that the main issues center around the heart, where
the upper and lower chakras seek balance. She may find that the issues of the heart resolve more by
strengthening the lower chakras than by working on the heart directly, as it is already excessive. In other
words, by getting into her body, she may feel more comfortable with movement, be less afraid of
sexuality, and become more assertive, all of which will help balance the tendency to cling, be emotionally
dependent, or have poor boundaries.

After you have completed this part of the assessment, you may wish to do some journal writing on the
feelings, situations, or developmental material relating to those chakras, as well as engage in some of the
suggested healing activities. My intention here is to present you with information you can use in whatever
way feels most comfortable, but because the person is so different, I cannot prescribe a comprehensive
treatment plan. A few general principles, however, can provide some language with which to talk about
the overall structure.

Top Down, Bottom Up, Inside Out, and Outside In

Assessing your patterns shows where in your system the energy is strongest and weakest. Like Robin
Hood who stole from the rich to give to the poor, we need to use the excessive energy to build up the
deficient energy. If we are excessive in the sixth chakra, we can use that excess to visualize a healthy
body or a better relationship. If we are strong communicators, we can use that skill to increase our sense
of power or improve our relationships. If we are highly disciplined, we can use that discipline to do
physical exercises or meditative practices.

In addition to the five basic character structures, there are also four basic patterns of unbalanced energy
distribution through the chakras. They are named for the direction in which one's energy needs to move
in order to achieve balance (excess toward deficiency). It must be emphasized that the following
descriptions are stereotypical, and that your own pattern may be more subtle.

TOP-DOWN SYSTEMS

If you live in your head, dealing with your body and the physical world only when you have to, then you
have a top-down chakra system. Your assessment would reveal excessive upper chakras and deficient
lower ones. Top-down people are usually thinking-intuitive types. They think first and act later (if at all),
and often have difficulty being spontaneous and playful. After much pondering, they decide how to feel
about something. They are often highly complex and intelligent people.

The natural tendency of top-down people is to move energy upward, but their growth and balance
comes from moving it downward and connecting with the body. For example, the Schizoid/Creative
individual who habitually moves energy upward would be considered a top-down energy system, because
they are energetically top-heavy and will benefit most by developing the lower chakras.
This type usually suffers from early childhood difficulties that threw them out of their bodies and into their
heads. They tend to pick jobs that are intellectual or analytical — teaching, computer programming, writing,
counseling, and nonperforming arts, such as painting. They are oriented toward self-reflection and self-
expression.

BOTTOM-UP SYSTEMS

Bottom-up systems, by contrast, are energetically bottom-heavy. Their tendency is to stay in the
repetitive, familiar patterns of the lower chakras, while their growth comes from moving energy upward in
the current of liberation. They are the feeling/sensate types who are more likely to be ruled by emotions
and instincts than by cognitive process. They are less likely to discuss their decisions with others, and
tend not to question their lives very much, preferring instead to keep things steady and not "rock the
boat." They tend to have simple expectations from life, and are satisfied with sticking to regular routines.
Stereotypes of this pattern may be seen in the sports jock who lives for physical activity and belittles his
wife's meditation class, or the laborer who just wants to work by day, watch TV at night, and wait for
retirement to buy his boat. It may be the outdoorsman who loves nature, but has little interest in things of
the intellect. In women, it may be the empty-headed ingenue whose primary concern is physical
appearance, or the classic housewife who is content to stay home and keep house, with little interest
beyond the mundane.

Bottom-up types generally enjoy physical activity such as exercise, sexuality, making things with their
hands, cooking, or giving massage. (This does not mean that everyone who enjoys these things fits this
pattern.) They keep their nose to the grindstone, tend to conform, and are predictable and reliable.
Bottom-up structures are concerned mostly with self-preservation and self-gratification. Ruled by the
unconscious, they often do not know why they do what they do, and may function by impulse, following
the path of least resistance. It may not even occur to them to question their impulses, or ponder the
meaning of life. Their energy tends to remain in the lower chakras unless stimulated by outside influences
such as a relationship, a crisis, illness, or injury.

This structure is most likely to result from a strict parent who curtails the natural expansiveness of the
child. "Sit still. Do what you're told. Be quiet. Don't even think about doing that." Their parents may have
punished, ridiculed, or restricted creative behavior and experimentation. Some families model this kind of
structure, teaching that life's rewards are found only in hard work, obedient behavior, and minimizing
expectations.

INSIDE-OUT SYSTEMS

Inside-out systems are energetically centered in the middle ego centers, and their growth comes from
extending this energy downward into the deeper self and upward toward the spirit and intellect. They
have overall balance between the upper and lower chakras, but they are poorly connected to either end.
They tend to take their bodies for granted and avoid introspection.

If the middle chakras are blocked, the energy is held in the middle of the body and kept from the
periphery. This is evident in the Endurer structure, who has trouble finding his ground or bringing his
feelings to consciousness, and who keeps his energy bound at the will. If the middle chakras are open,
then these types tend to be ego- and action-oriented extroverts who like to engage life — socialites,

performers, middle managers, or bureaucrats. They are not particularly interested in either their bodies or
spiritual matters. They are more interested in the outside world of politics, business, relationships, or the
performing arts. They are the doers who find their identity in activity yet may be unaware of their inner life.
The Achiever and the Challenger-Defender may fall into this category.

Many such people take their bodies for granted unless something goes wrong, and they may have no
interest in spirituality until some crisis forces them to search and question. This is the most common
pattern in mainstream American culture.

OUTSIDE-IN SYSTEMS

These systems may be acutely aware of both their head and their body, with neither connected to the
other. There is a great chasm of emptiness in the middle, especially at the heart. They may be highly
sensitive physically, with allergies, irritations, or chronic pains, or even obsessed with their body in some
way, such as with dieting or hypochondria. Their upper chakras tend to be highly developed and they are
intelligent, creative, and intuitive. Disconnected from the integrative middle, this type tends toward
introversion. There may be traumas that are repressed from memory, or serious wounds to the heart.
Their growth comes from establishing deep relationships, from opening up and reaching out.
The Oral structure may fall into this category as they are collapsed in the heart, although Orals can also
fall into any of the above categories, depending on their defense system. In extremes, this configuration
can signify serious dissociations. I have seen it in multiple personality disorders, obsessive-compulsive
disorders, and borderline personality disorders.
BALANCED SYSTEUS

It is possible to be relatively balanced through the chakras without being an enlightened master. People
who have worked on their own healing or were lucky in their upbringing may be relatively balanced. What
would this look like?

a person who is balanced in their chakra distribution would be well grounded and in touch with their body
and exhibit relatively good health and vitality. They would be aware of their feelings without being ruled by
them, sexually content without being driven. With a balanced third chakra, they would have confidence
and purpose without dominating others. The heart would be compassionate and loving, yet centered and
peaceful. Such a person could communicate feelings or ideas with equal truth and clarity, and be able to
listen to others. The upper chakras would bring imagination, wisdom, and a personal connection with
spirit.

This is an ideal for which we can hope to strive. By using our strengths to counteract our weaknesses and
holding ourselves in loving compassion and understanding, we all have the means to achieve it. It only
takes time, patience, and dedication.

Using the Assessment

This assessment should give you a good idea of where the energy in the system is most present, and
where it needs to move in order to achieve balance. Many people have reported to me that they achieved
profound results just by visualizing or kinesthetically moving their energy in a new direction. This is
especially true for ungrounded types who have never considered sending their energy downward.

When in Doubt, Work from the Ground Up

When I work with someone new, I usually start with grounding exercises and work my way up. This is
generally a safe approach that helps to get the client in her body, and teaches some basic ways to create
anchoring and safety. With grounding exercises, I can establish boundaries, get a sense of where the
energy is blocked, and focus the person's life energy into the here and now, so we can work with it. It is
also helpful to do drawings of the body or do the body dialog from my book The Sevenfold Journey (see
this page).

If the person is so frightened of having anything to do with her body that she cannot concentrate on the
exercises, then starting with grounding is contraindicated. In this case I use conversation to establish trust
and gather historical material. I ask the person to imagine roots anchoring her to the earth, or assign
physical tasks to do at home such as working in a garden, getting a massage, or doing simple stretching
exercises.

Once the ground begins to connect, the direction the work needs to take usually reveals itself. Emotions
may arise; thoughts may bring associations with relevant material from the past; bodily sensations may
become apparent. Dreams during the week may also give direction. If in doubt, I wait to see what
emerges. I do not force a "healing agenda" on my clients, but follow their own pattern of unfolding,
assisting and encouraging where needed.

At this point, the work depends entirely on the person's structure and the practioner's style. Hopefully, you
will find suitable methods and techniques in this book. The main thing to remember is that body, soul,
mind, and spirit, together with the seven chakras, are all one indivisible whole. Even when working with a
part, all the other parts are present and participating. The whole must be kept in mind at all times as the
guiding archetype of the Self.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ KUNDALINI AWAKENING
As one opens the door with a key, so the yogi should open the gate to liberation with
Kundalini. She gives liberation to the yogi and bondage to the Fool.

HATHA YOGA PRADIPIKA

Benjamin thought his wife, Marlena, was going mad. He complained that she was

keeping him awake by thrashing and kicking all the covers off the bed. "She keeps
twitching," he said, "as if someone were giving her periodic little shocks. She says she
can't help it." She complained that her left foot and leg were tingling and aching, and
she felt intense heat all through her body. Periodically, her whole torso would shake
violently, sometimes only for a few seconds, and at others for nearly an hour. "And
she's all over the place emotionally," he went on. "Sometimes she's scared and clings to
me like a little girl. At other times she's blissed out. She tells me she's seeing colors and
light when she closes her eyes, and sometimes she makes these strange sounds. I
can't figure out what's going on, and I'm really concerned. "3

Classical psychologists would be tempted to say that, indeed, Marlena was having a
psychotic break. Psychosomatic twitches and pains, voices, hallucinations, extreme
mood swings, and dissociation all seem to indicate a serious disturbance. Yet, when
viewed from a different light, these symptoms can reveal a radically different
diagnosis — Marlena could be experiencing a Kundalini awakening.
In Hindu mythology, Kundalini is a serpent goddess who lies asleep at the base of the
spine, coiled three and a half times around the first chakra. Her full name is Kundalini-
Shakti, and she represents the unfolding of the divine Shakti energy, the energizing
potential of life itself, a living Goddess who enlivens all things. Under certain
circumstances, the Kundalini energy awakens and begins to rise through the body,
piercing and opening the chakras as she moves in her undulating, snakelike fashion. As
she releases stored and blocked energies, her movement can be quite intense,
sometimes painful, and often leads to mental states that seem out of this world.
Circumstances that stimulate Kundalini awakening are many and varied, but are usually
triggered by such things as extended periods of meditation, yoga, fasting, stress,
trauma, psychedelic drugs, or near-death experiences.

Even mundane experiences can trigger this unpredictable goddess. About seventeen
years ago, I had my first Kundalini experiences after falling off a horse and bruising my
tailbone. I had been practicing yoga and meditation for a few years, so I was somewhat
prepared. My experience was less intense than most, but included several months of
sleeping only four hours a night, a strong desire to meditate for long periods of time, an
uncharacteristic lack of interest in sex, and a period of heightened sensitivity and
creativity. I was taking clairvoyant training at the time, and had an incredible upsurge in
my psychic abilities. I have had milder and shorter Kundalini experiences after watching
a frightening thriller movie that stimulated my survival chakra, or by going without food
for longer than normal. I also experienced Kundalini energy when I was pregnant with
my son, mostly during the first trimester.

Kundalini is a condensed, primal force, similar to the potential energy found in matter.
When released, it creates a vertical connection between the chakras by opening the
subtle channels known as nadis, most specifically, the central channel that moves up
the spine, called sushumnaA If we put water through a small hose at very high
pressure, the end of the hose will undulate like a snake. Similarly, the intense energy of
Kundalini undulates in the body as it rises through the chakras.

Kundalini can also be seen as the result, rather than the cause, of the chakras
connecting with each other. Theoretically, as the chakras enlarge, the spinning of one
can enhance the spinning of the one above or below it. Any energy spinning along the
edge of a chakra could get swept upward (or downward) in a serpentine motion by the

chakras, as their spinning changes direction from clockwise to counterclockwise5 (see
figure 6.2).

Kundalini is basically a healing force, though its effects can sometimes be quite
unpleasant. Such effects may last for minutes, days, months, or even years, as
documented in the well-known case of Gopi Krishna, who spent years dealing with
Kundalini.6

If you find yourself dealing with uncomfortable Kundalini symptoms, the following

suggestions and resources may be of help.

Attend to the body. Purify the body as much as possible by abstaining from
substances such as recreational drugs, tobacco, alcohol, and caffeine. This may
include prescription drugs as well. Watch your diet and avoid food additives, high
sugars, or greasy foods. Eat well, with a strong focus on protein, which is
generally grounding. Get massage and vigorous exercise, if possible.
Reduce stress. You may be in for a major spiritual transformation. If so, you need
to make some room for it. It may take time to make the necessary changes in
your life. You may even be incapacitated for periods of time. You may need to
devote more time to your spirituality or health. If possible, schedule a spiritual
retreat for yourself — a period away from your usual life where you can allow the
Kundalini energies to run their course and where you have the leisure to
contemplate their meaning.

Find support. Find others who have knowledge of this experience, and friends
with whom you feel spiritually aligned. (See sources on this page.)
Educate yourself. Read about Kundalini. Find out about the spiritual system of
yoga. Learn about the chakras.

Treat underlying psychological issues. As Kundalini brings up unresolved issues
(which it surely will) this is an excellent time to deal with them. It will make the
ride a lot smoother. Find a therapist you can work with or a support group.
Examine your spiritual practices. You may need to stop meditating for a while if it
increases unpleasant Kundalini symptoms. Let the process you have already
awakened catch up with your body and psyche. If you have not been practicing
meditation, yoga, or some spiritual practice, it may be time to begin. The proof is
in the pudding — see what increases or decreases the unpleasant effects.
Practice grounding. Kundalini is most difficult when the energy is moving upward
without enough energy moving downward to balance. Refer to grounding
exercises in this book or in my book The Sevenfold Journey, and practice them
daily. Investigate the possibility of first chakra issues that need to be resolved in
order to give a firmer base.

Practice yoga. Hatha yoga helps to strengthen the body, purify the nadis (subtle
channels), and awaken the chakras. The spontaneous movements (kriyas)
triggered by Kundalini awakening often resemble or result in classic asanas
(yoga poses), so you can help clear the way for Kundalini's smooth passage by
taking on a regular yoga practice. Yoga is so popular now that there are classes
in most areas, and you can sample various kinds of yoga until you find a style
and a teacher that suit you.

If Kundalini symptoms are uncomfortable, I do not recommend Kundalini yoga
classes, as they are designed to heighten, not diminish, this energy. However, a
qualified Kundalini yoga instructor may have good advice for you if you are
experiencing unpleasant symptoms.

Shiva — Counterpart to Kundauni-Shmoi

Kundalini-Shakti is the upward current that breaks out of restricted matter and moves
toward the infinite. Shiva, her counterpart, is the source of the downward current. He is
the Hindu god of destruction, partner to the great Mother Kali. Shiva destroys ignorance,

attachment, and illusion. In this act, he brings realization of the eternal consciousness
within that can never be destroyed. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The Shiva principle is the axis of manifestation developing from the point-limit (bindu),
the center of the universe.

ALAIN DANIELOU

Shiva, like many archetypes and gods, has a dark and a light force. In his active
principle, he is called Rudra, the howler or weeping one — a fierce destroyer, searing
ignorance in a single glance with lightning that emanates from his third eye. Yet Rudra
was also the lord of song, healing, sacrifices, and prosperity, simultaneously seen as
the remover of pain. In his later aspects, Rudra was given the name Shiva, meaning
Lord of Sleep, representing the "non-dual, undifferentiated state of peace. "7 In this
form, he is the ultimate transcendent deity of all knowledge, the merging of the
individual with the divine, representing limitless bliss.

When activated by Shakti, Shiva moves into manifestation as the dance (Shiva
Nataraja) and is often shown dancing on a corpse, which represents forgetfulness.
Without Shakti, it is said that Shiva is but a corpse. When enlivened by Shakti, "The
dance of Shiva suggests the primordial rhythm of the divine Heart whose pulsation
initiates each and every motion on the universe. "8 Together Shiva and Shakti are the
primordial emanations of life itself, the cosmic parents inherent in all creation.
In their coupling, Shiva is the pure consciousness that meets and tempers the raw, vital
energy of Shakti. Shiva is the static masculine principle that moves toward form and
order, whereas Shakti is the dynamic feminine, moving toward freedom and chaos. 9
Often worshipped as the Shiva lingam (male symbol of creation), Shiva represents the
piercing nature of consciousness that impregnates the seeker with potent awareness.
Shiva can be a tempering force for the violent ravages of Kundalini-Shakti. To bring
consciousness down from the top is to bring calm and order to her chaotic energies.
When we deal with Kundalini, we are dealing with difficult, unrefined, and unconscious
energies. As Kundalini rises, she "cooks" the grosser levels into the refinement of the
higher chakras. Shiva, however, is that refinement. He brings order and peace to her
restless wildness. Perhaps Kundalini is most unruly when she is longing for her partner.
Thus the yogin, who, through the stirring of the energy, dwells steadfastly at the junction
of the twofold movement of emanation and resorption, is returned to the primordial
oneness, the vibration of the universal heart.

LILIAN SILBURN

To invoke the energy of Shiva is to call upon the transcendent bliss of the crown chakra
and bring it down through the body. This invokes the manifesting current, which brings
form, simplicity, and grounding. The union of these two forces synthesizes the cosmic
principles of male and female, upper and lower, form and chaos, transcendence and
immanence, into a single dynamic essence.

Tantra— Meeting at the Heart

The philosophy of Tantra, which most people mistakenly think is only about sex, is
actually about weaving. The word Tantra literally means "loom" and the verb tan
means "to stretch." Tantra is the spiritual practice of weaving together opposite
energies, specifically the upward and downward currents of Shakti and Shiva. Sexuality,
as a subset of Tantra, is a sacred act that embodies this union on the physical plane.
The ultimate balance of these two forces, however, occurs when we bring them through
all the chakras and balance them in the heart.

Tantra seeks to obtain enlightenment not by renunciation, but by embracing the full
experience of living. Tantra delights in the senses, desires, and feelings, and is focused
on the expansion of consciousness that comes from a dynamic, sensate connection to
life. Tantra does not advise us to cease action but to transform our acts into creative
evolution. Tantra is the harmonious weaving of primordial opposites: mortal and divine,

male and female, Shiva and Shakti, spirit and matter, Heaven and Earth.
We have stated that the heart chakra is the central integrating chamber of the chakra
system. Through the bonding power of love, all things eventually find their way to
connection and wholeness. The crown brings us realization — the understanding that
allows us to embrace the whole. The body is the temple where all things come to rest
and fruition. Without integration, the temple is empty and the spirit is homeless. The
heart, as integrator, is thus the ultimate center of the Self.

The union of two triangles symbolizes the union of Shiva-Shakti manifesting in the
objective universe. When the two triangles are separated and form an hourglass
pattern ... they represent dissolution: time and space cease to exist.

AJIT MOOKERJEE

What does it mean to bring ourselves into the center at the heart? It means that we feel
our bodies and their needs and emotions, and bring these feelings to a place of wisdom
and understanding. It means that we consider our actions for their effects on others, yet
maintain an awareness of the individual Self. It means that we embody our wisdom by
not blindly accepting beliefs without testing them with the body's truth. It means that we
approach all life — in the Self and with others — with compassion and love. It means we
dwell in a place of peace and balance, alive yet calm, changing yet stable.
I believe that at this point in history, we are desperately being called upon to rise to the
level of the heart from our collective immersion in the third chakra. Presently, world
issues center around power and aggression. We live in the shadow of potential nuclear
holocaust. Western civilization has exalted the cult of the individual. We have
worshipped the Hero's quest. We have achieved technological prowess.
It is now time to court the next stage of the Hero's quest: the return. This is where the
fruits of individuality and power are brought home to benefit the community — a distinct
movement from third chakra to fourth. We must realize that as individuals, our
possibilities are limited, but as conscious members of a larger community, we have
unlimited potential. In the quest for enlightenment, the final responsibility is to return to
the world and become part of the evolutionary system.

Only love can lift us out of the violence, aggression, and coldhearted individualism that
typifies our time. Only love can reweave the original fabric of wholeness that has been
severed, in ourselves, and among each other. This is the vital piece of the Rainbow
Bridge that needs to be emphasized at this time. As the bridge is created by each one
of us, only we, as conscious, integrated individuals, can open our hearts to make the
connection between Heaven and Earth a living reality.

Temple for the Gods

HARISH JOHARI

In Norse mythology, the giants built the palace Valhalla as an abode for the gods. The
Rainbow Bridge was the means of getting to Valhalla. However, the giants had
requested a payment for their work — Frejya, the goddess of love. We cannot have
another build our temple for us, nor can we afford to pay for it by sacrificing love. If we
are to invite divine energies to manifest within us, then we must build our own temple.
In the seventh chakra discussion, I described consciousness as a universal field
accessed through the individual psyche. I also noted how the amount of consciousness
we can access depends upon our intelligence and state of mind. The divine, however, is
more than just consciousness. In its full spectrum, the divine is also beauty, sound, love,
energy, feeling, and form — elements reflected in each chakra. To tap into the full
spectrum of divinity, we need to build a temple within ourselves that is capable of
receiving and transmitting each one of these frequencies. Only then can we fully
access the many levels in which divinity manifests.

Each chakra represents an essential chamber in the temple of the Self. Each one

houses an aspect of the sacred and is necessary for wholeness. The more we clean
and properly decorate the temple, the more we court the presence of the divine.
We build a temple to the gods by creating, clearing, and restoring each of the chambers
of the chakras. Only when we have built a foundation and reclaimed our life force from
the ground up are we truly able to handle the manifestations of divine consciousness.
How fully we can bring forth divinity depends on how thoroughly we develop the seven
chambers inside. Once we open to the gods, our job is then to bring them forward
through our own sacred living and enhance the journey for others. Only by going on the
journey ourselves can we guide others. Thus, the journey across the Rainbow Bridge
becomes a sacred quest for the evolution of humanity.

ENDNOTES

INTRODUCTION

1. Tantrik Purnananda-Swami, Sat-Chakra Nirupana [Description of and Investigation into the Six Bodily
Centers], translated by Arthur Avalon (see below).

2. Arthur Avalon, The Serpent Power (New York: Dover Publications, 1974).

3. Ancient tantric diagrams had varied color associations for the chakras. For more information on the
"etheric body" colors and the chakras, see Valerie Hunt's paper "A Study of Structural Integration from
Neuromuscular, Energy Field, and Emotional Approaches," available through the Rolf Institute, Boulder,
Colorado, or see my book Wheels of Life (St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn, 1987), 327.

4. Stanley Keleman, Patterns of Distress: Emotional Insults and Human Form (Berkeley, CA: Center
Press, 1989), 9.

5. See Alexander Lowen, Language of the Body (New York: Collier Books, 1958), or Wilhelm Reich,
Character Analysis (New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 1949).

6. The first three orientations — self-preservation, self-gratification, and self-definition — were first
correlated to "lower forces" by Jacqueline Small, in her book Transformations (Marina del Rey, CA:
DeVorss & Co., 1982).

7. Margaret Mahler, The Psychological Birth of the Human Infant: Symbiosis and Individuation (New
York: Basic Books, 1975), 54.

8. Ken Wilber, The Atman Project (Wheaton, IL: A Quest Book, 1980), 7-29.

9. J. Marvin Spiegelman and Arwind U. Vasavada, Hinduism and Jungian Psychology (Phoenix, AZ:
Falcon Press, 1987), 48.

CHAKRA ONE

1 . Erik Erikson, as quoted by Barbara and Philip Newman, Development Through Life: A Psychosocial
Approach (Chicago: Dorsey Press, 1975), 182.

2. Ashley Montagu, Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin (New York: Harper & Row, 1 971 ),
77-78, lists several such studies. Most had a 100 percent death rate.

3. Susan Kano, Making Peace with Food (New York: Harper & Row, 1989), 40.

4. This term was coined by Pamela L. A. Chubbuck, Ph. D., in her private teaching.
CHAKRA TWO

1 . People involved with sadomasochistic sexuality (S&M) will obviously take issue with this statement.
For some people, pain enacted under certain conditions is pleasure. This shadow side of sexuality is a
complicated issue involving more than just the pleasure/pain dynamic; it also involves psychological
issues of power and submission. Intense sensation is sometimes required to combat numbness, and pain
is intense sensation. There are people for whom pain invites expansion in cases where numbness and
contraction have previously ruled.

2. Hal Stone works especially with voice dialog, and his books, written with Sidra Stone, include
Embracing Our Selves and Embracing Each Other (see Bibliography).

3. According to Erikson, we are still in the trust vs. mistrust dilemma at this age. If I were to distinguish
the second chakra along these lines, I would add a stage called separation vs. attachment, the healthy
resolution of which would be autonomy, which brings us to the next stage, which challenges us to keep
that autonomy in the onslaught of shame and doubt.

4. Margaret Mahler, The Psychological Birth of the Human Infant: Symbiosis and Individualism (New
York: Basic Books, 1975), 53-54.

5. Ashley Montagu, Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin (New York: Harper & Row, 1978),
209.

6. Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence (New York: Bantam Books, 1995), 225.

7. Jean Liedoff, The Continuum Concept (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1975), 32.

8. Marion Woodman, Addiction to Perfection (Toronto: Inner City Books, 1982), 36.

9. Alice Miller, The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self (New York, Basic Books,
1981).

10. Alexander Lowen, The Betrayal of the Body (New York: Collier Books, 1967), 2.

1 1 . Peter Levine, Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma: The Innate Capacity to Transform Overwhelming
Experiences (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 1997).

CHAKRA THREE

1 . Laurence Boldt, Zen and the Art of Making a Living (New York: Penguin Arkana, 1 993), xlvi.

2. Ibid., 152.

3. Ibid., 134.

4. John Pierrakos, Core Energetics: Developing the Capacity to Love and Heal (Mendocino, CA: Life
Rhythm Publication, 1987), 286.

5. Rollo May, Love and Will (New York: Delta, 1969), 27.

6. Ibid., 218.

7. Ibid., 193.

8. Just as will is built upon pleasure (moving from the ground upward), so is pleasure only present in
coordination with will (the descending current moving downward). Sexual coercion is a prime example of
this, where a normally pleasurable activity is robbed of pleasure because the will is not in accordance with
the act.

9. Alexander Lowen, Language of the Body (New York: Collier Books, 1988), 200.

10. Robert Bly, Iron John (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1990), 110-111.

1 1 . Starhawk, Truth or Dare (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1 987), 71 .

12. Ibid., 81.

13. Alice Miller, Drama of the Gifted Child (New York: Basic Books, 1981), 39.

14. Alice Miller, For Your Own Good (New York: Basic Books, 1983), 59.
CHAKRAFOUR

1 .San Francisco Chronicle, May 11,1 994, A8: Other statistics in the same article show that each day in
America 9 children are murdered, 13 die from guns, 30 are wounded by guns, and 1 ,200,000 latchkey
children come home to a house in which there is a gun.

2. Details of archeological research supporting the existence of extended worship of the Goddess
archetype is too lengthy to include in this discussion. For more information, refer to Riane Eisler's The
Chalice and the Blade (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1 991 ), or Elinor Gadon's The Once and Future
Goddess (New York: Harper & Row, 1 989). These are but a few of the many books on the subject.

3. C. G. Jung, "Transformation Symbolism in the Mass," from Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, as
quoted by Aldo Caratenuto in Eros and Pathos (Toronto: Inner City Books, 1 985), 25.

4. Thomas Moore, Soul Mates: Honoring the Mysteries of Love and Relationship (New York:
HarperCollins, 1994), 23.

5. Ibid., 19.

6. Jean Piaget, as quoted in Psychological Development: A Life-Span Approach (New York: Harper &
Row, 1979), 173.

7. While the masculine/feminine characteristics listed here may seem hopelessly sexist, they do reflect
collective concepts that must be integrated before we can escape such sexism and incorporate both
qualities into our psyche, regardless of gender.

8. Harville Hendrix, Getting the Love You Want (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), 38.

9. Alice Miller, For Your Own Good (New York: Basic Books, 1981), 115.

1 0. Steven R. Covey, The Seven Habit of Highly Effective People (New York: Simon and Schuster,
1989), 79-80.

CHAKRA FIVE

1 . These statistics and more are from Steven Halpern, Sound Health (San Francisco: Harper & Row,
1985), 11-12.

2. Mikol Davis and Earle Lane, Rainbows of Life: The Promise of Kirlian Photography (New York:
Harper Colophon, 1978), 47.

3. Ibid., 58-61 . When the couple changed to pleasant thoughts, their auras flowed into one another, even
though they were not physically touching. During unpleasant thoughts, they remained distinct.

4. Erik Erikson, Childhood and Society (New York: W.W. Norton, 1964), 259.

5. Stanley Keleman, Your Body Speaks Its Mind (Berkeley, CA: Center Press, 1 975), 36.

6. Harold Bloomfield, et al., Transcendental Meditation: Discovering Inner Awareness and Overcoming
Stress (New York: Delacorte Press, 1975).

7. Randall McClellan, The Healing Forces of Music (New York: Amity House, 1988), 61.

8. Leah Garfield, Sound Medicine (Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts, 1987), 73-77.

9. Hal A. Lingerman, The Healing Energy of Music (Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 1983).
CHAKRA SIX

1 . In the Tantric texts, chakras one through five are correlated respectively with smell, taste, sight, touch,
and hearing. There are no physical senses correlated to the upper chakras.

2. These tales are described in greater detail by Jeremy Taylor, Where People Fly and Water Runs
Uphill (New York: Warner Books, 1992).

3. Ibid., 13.

4. Satprem, Sri Aurobindo, or the Adventure of Consciousness (New York: Harper & Row, 1968).

5. Gerhard Adler, as quoted by Jolande Jacobi, The Way of Individuation (London: Hodder &
Stoughton, 1967), 18.

6. C. G. Jung, Psychological Types, from The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 6 (Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1971), 325.

7. Erik Erikson, Childhood and Society (New York: W.W. Norton, 1964), 263.

8. John Bradshaw, Bradshaw on: The Family, PBS Broadcasting.

9. Jacob Liberman, Light: Medicine of the Future (Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Co., 1991), 59-60.

10. Ibid., 36.
CHAKRA SEVEN

1 . Once again the reader is reminded that I speak of soul as that which organizes itself toward the body,

feeling, and form. Spirit is more abstract and universal and wants to expand. When soul is disconnected
from spirit, it becomes lifeless and dull. When spirit is disconnected from soul, it lacks depth and texture,
and becomes diffuse and ineffective.

2. Erich Jantsch, Design for Evolution (New York: George Brazillier, 1975).

3. As God is by nature unlimited, a "particular concept of God" is by nature limiting, and therefore a
contradiction that renders the definition false.

4. Meaning derives from the Old English maenan — to recite, tell, or state an intention, hence to intend.
Meaning tells us what something's intention or purpose is.

5. Alexander Maven has even suggested that the mystic union characteristic of the seventh chakra is
directly analogous to a sperm penetrating an ovum. We take a long journey that only a few survive, and
once we arrive we are absorbed completely and transformed into the beginning of something greater. We
do not lose our identity (chromosomes) but merely redefine it to include an additional set. (In addition, this
analogy gives a good argument for the feminine aspect of divinity, does it not?) From John White, ed.,
"Mystic Union: A Suggested Biological Interpretation" in The Highest State of Consciousness (New York:
Doubleday/Anchor, 1972).

6. Stewart Brand, The Millenium Whole Earth Catalog (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1994), i.

7. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 1 Adhyay, 4 Brahmana, verse 1 0ff; Max Muller, trans., The Upanishads
(New York: Dover, 1962).

8. Studies have shown that children growing up in monogamous families with the same set of parents
are more likely to become fixated in one way of thinking than children who grow up with coparents who
remarry, nonmonogamous parents, or extended families. Magorah Maruyama and Erich Jantsch, eds.,
"Toward Cultural Symbiosis" in Evolution and Consciousness (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1976),
198.

9. John Bradshaw, Creating Love (New York: Bantam, 1992), 244.

10. Students International Meditation Society and Demetri P. Kanellakos, "Transcendental Meditation" in
The Highest State of Consciousness (New York: Doubleday/Anchor, 1972).

1 1 . H. Aranya, Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali (New York: State University of New York Press, 1 983).
CONCLUSION

1. Personal correspondence.

2. If someone has created a more standardized personality test that reflects the chakras, I would be very
interested in seeing it.

3. This particular story is a composite of typical Kundalini symptoms, taken from a number of
documented cases from various sources.

4. The esoteric literature discusses many kinds of Kundalini risings, which travel through different nadis.
The sushumna is the main, central channel, and characterizes the nature of the vertical rising.

5. There are many disagreements about the spinning of the chakras. Some say they all spin clockwise
(see Barbara Ann Brennan's Hands of Light and Rosalyn L. Bruyere's Wheels of Light). I think this is
energetically unrealistic as this contradicts the alternate motion of the nadis, Ida and Pingala (see page
359).

6. Gopi Krishna, Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man (Boston: Shambhala, 1971).

7. Alain Danielou, Gods of India (1995).

8. Lilian Silburn, Kundalini: Energy of the Depths (1988).

9. There are different opinions on this. Since the downward pointing triangle represents the feminine
symbol of the yoni, and the upward triangle, the Shiva lingam, some (see Ajit Mookerji, The Tantric Way)
say that Shakti is the downward current and Shiva is the upward. This goes against the classic
interpretation of Kundalini-Shakti as a rising force and puts Shiva's home at the base of the spine, which
is contrary to Shiva's basic attributes of pure consciousness. Yet, in classic pictures of the muladhara
chakra, the Shiva lingam is shown upright, wrapped three and a half times around by the serpent
Kundalini.

10. Ajit Mookerjee, The Tantric Way (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1977), 9.

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Shumsky, Susan G. Exploring Chakras: Awaken Your Untapped Energy. Franklin Lakes, NJ: Career
Press, 2003.

White, John, ed. Kundalini, Evolution and Enlightenment. New York: Anchor/Doubleday, 1979.

Chakra One

Boldt, Lawrence. Zen and the Art of Making a Living. New York: Penguin Arkana, 1991 .
Kano, Susan. Making Peace with Food. San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1989.
Liedloff, Jean. The Continuum Concept. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1975.

Roberts, Elizabeth, and Elia Amidon. Earth Prayers from Around the World. San Francisco: Harper San
Francisco, 1991 .

Chakra Two

Anand, Margo. The Art of Sexual Ecstasy: The Path of Sacred Sexuality for Western Lovers. Los
Angeles: J.P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1989.

Bass, Ellen, and Laura Davis. The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Sexual Abuse.
New York: Harper & Row, 1 988.

Borysenko, Joan. Guilt Is the Teacher, Love Is the Lesson. New York: Warner Books, 1990.

Davis, Laura. Allies in Healing: When the Person You Love Was Sexually Abused as a Child. New York:

Harper Perennial, 1991 .

. The Courage to Heal Workbook: For Women and Men Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse. New York:

Harper & Row, 1990.

Eisler, Riane. Sacred Pleasure. San Francisco: Harper, 1995.
Goleman, Daniel. Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam, 1995.

Jwala, with Robb Smith. Sacred Sex: Ecstatic Techniques for Empowering Relationships. San Rafael,
CA: Mandala Books, 1994.

Kane, Evangeline. Recovering from Incest: Imagination and the Healing Process. Boston: Sigo Press,
1989.

Love, Patricia. The Emotional Incest Syndrome: What to Do When a Parent's Love Rules Your Life. New
York: Bantam Books, 1990.

Montagu, Ashley. Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin. New York: Harper & Row, 1971 .
Ransdale, David, and Ellen Ransdale. Sexual Energy Ecstasy: A Practical Guide to Lovemaking Secrets
of the East and West. New York: Bantam, 1993.

Sanders, Timothy L. Male Survivors: 12-Step Recovery Program for Survivors of Childhood Sexual
Abuse. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1991.

Chakra Three

Assagioli, Roberto. The Act of Will. New York: Penguin Arkana, 1974.

Bradshaw, John. Healing the Shame the Binds You. Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications Inc.,
1988.

Covey, Steven R. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1 989.
May, Rollo. Love and Will. New York: Delta, 1969.

Starhawk. Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority, and Mystery. San Francisco: Harper & Row,
1987.

Steiner, Claude. The Other Side of Power: How to Become Powerful without Being Power Hungry. New
York: Grove Press, 1 981 .

Tavris, Carol. Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982.

Chakra Four

Adamson, Sophia. Through the Gateway of the Heart. San Francisco: Four Trees Publications, 1 985.
Beattie, Melody. Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself.
New York: Harper Hazelden, 1987.

Bradshaw, John. Bradshaw on the Family: A Revolutionary Way of Self-Discovery. Deerfield Beach, FL:
Health Communications, Inc., 1988.

. Creating Love: The Next Great Stage of Growth. New York: Bantam, 1 992.

. Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child. New York: Bantam, 1990.

Carotenuto, Aldo. Eros and Pathos: Shades of Love and Suffering. Toronto: Inner City Books, 1 989.
Hendricks, Gay, and Kathlyn Hendricks. Conscious Loving: The Journey to Co-Commitment. New York:
Bantam, 1990.

Hendrix, Harville. Getting the Love You Want. New York: Harper Perennial, 1988.
Mellody, Pia. Facing Codependence. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989.

Metrick, Sydney Barbara. Crossing the Bridge: Creating Ceremonies for Grieving and Healing from Life's
Losses. Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts, 1964.

Moore, Thomas. Soul Mates: Honoring the Mysteries of Love and Relationship. New York: Harper
Perennial, 1994.

Sell, Emily Hilburn. The Spirit of Loving. Boston: Shambhala, 1995.

Stone, Hal, and Sidra Winkelman. Embracing Each Other: Relationship as Teacher, Healer & Guide.
Novato, CA: Nataraj Publishing, 1989.

Chakra Five

Gardner, Kay. Sounding the Inner Landscape: Music as Medicine. Stonington, ME: Caduceus
Publications, 1990.

Gardner-Gordon, Joy. The Healing Voice: Traditional and Contemporary Toning, Chanting, and Singing.
Berkeley, CA: The Crossing Press, 1993.

Garfield, Laeh Maggie. Sound Medicine: Healing with Music, Voice, and Song. Berkeley, CA: Celestial
Arts, 1987.

Gerber, Richard. Vibrational Medicine. Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Co., 1988.

Halpern, Steven. Tuning the Human Instrument: An Owner's Manual. Palo Alto, CA: Spectrum Research
Institute, 1978.

Halpern, Steven, with Louis Savary. Sound Health: The Music and Sounds That Make Us Whole. San
Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985.

Hamel, Peter Michael. Through Music to the Self. Boston: Shambhala, 1979.

Keyes, Laurel Elizabeth. Toning: The Creative Power of the Voice. Marina del Rey, CA: DeVorss Sc
Co., 1973.

Leonard, George. The Silent Pulse. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1978.

Lingerman, Hal A. The Healing Energies of Music. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 1983.

Maidment, Robert. Tuning In: A Guide to Effective Listening. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publications, 1 984.

McClellan, Randall. The Healing Forces of Music: History, Theory, and Practice. New York: Amity House,

1988.

Miller, Melvin E., and Susanne R. Cook-Greuter, eds. Creativity, Spirituality, and Transcendence.
Stamford, CT: Ablex Publishing, 2000.

Stone, Hal. Embracing Our Selves: The Voice Dialogue Manual. Novato, CA: Nataraj, 1 993.

Chakra Six

Ahsen, Akhter. Basic Concepts in Eidetic Psychotherapy. New York: Brandon House, 1973.

Feinstein, David, and Stanley Krippner. Personal Mythology: The Psychology of Your Evolving Self. Los

Angeles: Jeremy Tarcher, 1988.

Foster, Stephen and Meredith Little. The Book of the Vision Quest. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall,
1988.

Gawain, Shakti. Creative Visualization. San Rafael, CA: New World Library, 1979.
. Living in the Light. New York: Bantam, 1993.

LaBerge, Stephen. Lucid Dreaming: The Power of Being Awake & Aware in Your Dreams. New York:
Ballantine, 1985.

Liberman, Jacob. Light: Medicine of the Future. Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Co., 1 991 .
Jung, Carl G. Man and His Symbols. New York: Doubleday, 1964.
Stevens, Anthony. Archetypes. New York: Quill, 1983.

Taylor, Jeremy. Dreamwork: Techniques for Discovering the Creation Power in Dreams. New York:
Paulist Press, 1983.

. Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill: Using Dreams to Tap the Wisdom of the Unconscious.

New York: Warner Books, 1992.

Wauters, Ambika. Chakras and Their Archetypes: Uniting Energy Awareness and Spiritual Growth.
Berkeley, CA: The Crossing Press, 1997.

Williams, Strephon Kaplan. Jungian-Senoi Dreamwork Manual. Berkeley, CA: Journey Press, 1980.

Chakra Seven

Booth, Leo. The God Game: It's Your Move. Walpole, NH: Stillpoint, 1994.

Goldstei n , Joseph . The Experience of Insight: A Simple and Direct Guide to Buddhist Meditation. Boston :
Shambhala, 1983.

Kabat-Zinn, Jon. Wherever You Go, There You Are. New York: Hyperion, 1994.
Rama, Swami, Rudolph Ballantine, and Swami Ajaya. Yoga and Psychotherapy: The Evolution of
Consciousness. Honesdale, PA: Himalaya International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy, 1976.
Satprem. Sri Aurobindo, or the Adventure of Consciousness. New York: Harper & Row, 1968.
White, John, ed. Frontiers of Consciousness: The Meeting Ground Between Inner and Outer Reality.
Julian, CA: Julian Press, 1974.

. The Highest State of Consciousness. New York: Anchor Books, 1972.

PSYCHOLOGY

General and Transpersonal Psychology

Assagioli, Roberto. Psychosynthesis. New York: Penguin Arkana, 1976.
Bynum, Edward Brude. Transcending Psychoneurotic Disturbances: New Approaches in
Psychospirituality and Personality Development. Binghamtom, NY: Harrington Park Press, 1994.
Cortwright, Brant. Psychotherapy and Spirit: Theory and Practice in Transpersonal Psychotherapy.
Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Eliade, Mircea. Shamanism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1964.
Levine, Stephen. Healing into Life and Death. New York: Anchor Books, 1987.

Mijares, Sharon G. Modern Psychology and Ancient Wisdom: Psychological Healing Practices from the
World's Religious Traditions. New York: Haworth Integrative Healing Press, 2003.

Miller, Alice. The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self. Translated by Ruth Ward. New
York: HarperCollins, 1981.

. For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence.

Translated by Hildegarde Hannum and Hunter Hannum. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1983.
Ornstein, Robert E. The Psychology of Consciousness. San Francisco: Penguin Books, 1972.
Ratsch, Christian, ed. Gateway to Inner Space: Sacred Plants, Mysticism, and Psychotherapy. Dorset,
England: Prism-Unity Press, 1989.

Small, Jacquelyn. Transformers: The Therapists of the Future. Marina Del Rey, CA: DeVorss & Co.,
1982.

Thouless, Robert H. An Introduction to the Psychology of Religion. 3rd edition. London: Cambridge
University Press, 1971 .

Walsh, Roger N. and Frances Vaughan, Ph.D. Beyond Ego: Transpersonal Dimensions in Psychology.
Los Angeles: J. P. Tarcher, 1980.

Washburn, Michael. The Ego and the Dynamic Ground: A Transpersonal Theory of Human
Development. New York: State University of New York Press, 1988.

Wilber, Ken. The Atman Project: A Transpersonal View of Human Development. Wheaton, IL: Quest
Books, 1980.

. No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth. Boston: Shambhala, 1 985.

. Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution. Boston: Shambhala, 1995.

Somatic Psychology

Conger, John P. The Body in Recovery: Somatic Psychotherapy and the Self. Berkeley, CA: Frog, Ltd.,
1994.

. Jung & Reich: The Body as Shadow. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 1988.

Hanna, Thomas. Somatics: Reawakening the Mind's Control of Movement, Flexibility, and Health.

Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1988.

Keleman, Stanley. Emotional Anatomy. Berkeley, CA: Center Press, 1985.

. The Human Ground: Sexuality, Self, and Survival. Berkeley, CA: Center Press, 1975.

. Love: A Somatic View. Berkeley, CA: Center Press, 1994.

. Patterns of Distress. Berkeley, CA: Center Press, 1989.

. Your Body Speaks Its Mind. Berkeley, CA: Center Press, 1975.

Levine, Peter, with Ann Frederick. Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma: The Innate Capacity to Transform
Overwhelming Experiences (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 1997).
Lowen, Alexander. The Betrayal of the Body. New York: Collier Books, 1 967.
. The Language of the Body. New York: Collier Books, 1 958.

Lowen, Alexander, and Leslie Lowen. The Way to Vibrant Health. New York: Harper Colophon Books,
1977.

McNeely, Deldon Anne. Touching: Body Therapy and Depth Psychology. Toronto: Inner City Books,
1987.

Pierrakos, John. Core Energetics: Developing the Capacity to Love and Heal. Mendocino, CA: Life
Rhythm Publication, 1987.

Reich, Wilhelm. Character Analysis. Translated by Theodore P. Wolfe. New York: Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 1949.

. Children of the Future. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983.

. The Function of the Orgasm: The Discovery of the Orgone. New York: World Publishing Co., 1 971 .

Jungian Psychology

Carotenuto, Aldo. The Vertical Labyrinth: Individuation in Jungian Psychology. Toronto: Inner City Books,
1985.

Dourley, John P. A Strategy for a Loss of Faith: Jung's Proposal. Toronto: Inner City Books, 1992.

Hill, Gareth. Masculine and Feminine: The Natural Flow of Opposites in the Psyche. Boston: Shambhala,

1982.

Jacobi, Jolande. Complex, Archetype, Symbol. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, Bollingen
Series, LVII, 1959.

. The Psychology of C. G. Jung. Translated by K. W. Bash. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,

1951.

. The Way of Individuation. Translated by R. C. F. Hull. London: Holder & Stoughton, 1967.

Jung, Carl Gustav. Axon: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 1959.

. The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 9. 1).

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1959.

. Dreams. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974.

. Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Edited by Aniela Jaffe. New York: Vintage Books, 1965.

. The Practice of Psychotherapy (The Collected Works of C. G Jung, Volume 16). Princeton, NJ:

Princeton University Press, 1966.

. Psychological Types (The Collected Works of C. G Jung, Volume 6). Princeton, NJ: Princeton

University Press, 1971 .

. Psychology and Religion: West and East (The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 11).

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1958.

. Psychology and the East. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1978.

. The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche (The Collected Works of C. G Jung, Volume 8).

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1960.

. Two Essays on Analytical Psychology (The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 7). Princeton,

NJ: Princeton University Press, 1966.

Jung, Emma. Animus and Anima. Woodstock, CT: Spring Publications, 1957.

McNeely, Deldon Anne. Touching: Body Therapy and Depth Psychology. Toronto: Inner City Books,

1987.

Moore, Thomas. Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life. New
York: HarperCollins, 1992.

Smith, Curtis D. Jung's Quest for Wholeness: A Religious and Historical Perspective. New York: State
University of New York Press, 1990.

Spiegelman, J. Marvin, and Arwind Vasavada. Hinduism and Jungian Psychology. Scottsdale, AZ:
Falcon Press, 1987.

Whitmont, Edward. The Symbolic Quest: Basic Concepts in Analytical Psychology. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 1969.

Woodman, Marion. Addiction to Perfection: The Still Unravished Bride. Toronto: Inner City Books, 1982.

Developmental Psychology

Erikson, Erik. Childhood and Society. New York: W.W. Norton, 1964.

Mahler, Margaret S., Fred Pine, and Anni Bergman. The Psychological Birth of the Human Infant:
Symbiosis and Individuation. New York: Basic Books, 1975.

Mussen, Paul Henry, John Janeway Conger, Jerome Kagan, and James Geiwitz. Psychological
Development: A Life-Span Approach. New York: Harper & Row, 1979.

Newman, Barbara M., and Philip R. Newman. Development Through Life: A Psychosocial Approach.
Chicago: Dorsey Press, 1975.

Papalla, Diane E., and Sally Wendkos Olds. A Child's World: Infancy through Adolescence. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1986.

Piaget, Jean. The Grasp of Consciousness: Action and Concept in the Young Child. Translated by Susan
Wedgewood. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976.

Piaget, Jean, and Barbel Inhelder. The Psychology of the Child. Translated by Helen Weaver. New York:
Basic Books, 1969.

Evolutionary Psychology and Systems Theory

Jantsch, Erich. Design for Evolution: Self-Organization and Planning in the Life of Human Systems. New
York: George Braziller, 1975.

. The Self-Organizing Universe: Scientific and Human Implications of the Emerging Paradigm of

Evolution. New York: Pergamon Press, 1980.

Jantsch, Erich, and Conrad H. Waddington. Evolution and Consciousness: Human Systems in
Transition. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1976.

Neumann, Erich. The Origins and History of Consciousness. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press,
1954.

Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre. The Phenomenon of Man. New York: HarperCollins, 1959.

MISCELLANEOUS

Berman, Morris. The Reenchantment of the World. New York: Bantam Books, 1984.
Blair, Lawrence. Rhythms of Vision. New York: Schocken Books, 1976.
Bly, Robert. Iron John. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1990.
Gibran, Kahil. The Prophet. New York: Knopf, 1951.

Kosko, Bart. Fuzzy Thinking: The New Science of Fuzzy Logic. New York: Hyperion, 1993.

Addictions

Ash, Mel. The Zen of Recovery. New York: Tarcher/Putnam. 1 993.

Bien, Beverly, and Thomas Bien. Mindful Recovery: A Spiritual Path to Healing from Addiction. New
York: John Wiley & Sons, 2002.

Cunningham, Donna, and Andrew Ramer. Further Dimensions of Healing Addictions. San Rafael, CA:
Cassandra Press, 1988.

Grof, Christina. The Thirst for Wholeness: Attachment, Addiction, and the Spiritual Path. San Francisco:
Harper, 1993.

Kasl, Charlotte. Women, Sex, and Addiction: A Search for Love and Power. New York: Ticknor & Fields,
1989.

Whitfield, Charles, L. Alcoholism and Spirituality: A Transpersonal Approach. Rutherford, NJ: Thomas
Perrin, Inc., 1985.

Kundalini

Greenwell, Bonnie. Energies of Transformation. Saratoga, CA: Shakti River Press, 1995.

Krishna, Gopi. Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man. Boston: Shambhala, 1 971 .

Kundalini Research Network, c/o Lawrence Edwards, Ph.D., 66 Main St., Bedford Hills, NY 10507, (914)

241-8510, www.kundalininet.org. (Website provides information, not referrals.)

Mookerjee, Ajit. Kundalini: The Arousal of Inner Energy. New York: Destiny Books, 1982.

Sannella, Lee. The Kundalini Experience. Lower Lake, CA: Integral Publishing, 1987.

Silburn, Lilian. Kundalini: Energy of the Depths. New York: State University of New York Press, 1 988.

ALSO BY ANODEA JUDITH

BOOKS

Chakra Balancing: A Guide to Healing and Awakening Your Energy Body

A complete home-study kit with beautifully illustrated chakra cards. 102-page workbook,

2 audio CDs, and 7 cards. Sounds True, 2003.

The Sevenfold Journey: Reclaiming Mind, Body, and Spirit Through the Chakras

A self-help workbook on the chakras, coauthored with Selene Vega, including over 120

photos. 294 pages. The Crossing Press, 1993.

Wheels of Life: A User's Guide to the Chakra System

A classic illustrated text, with over 150,000 copies in print. 480 pages. Llewellyn
Publications, 1999.
OTHER PRODUCTS

A Beginner's Guide to the Chakras:

How to Heal Yourself Using Your Body's Energy Centers

A great starter for understanding the underlying energy dynamics of the chakra system.
73-minute audio CD. Sounds True, 2002.

The Chakra System: A Complete Course in Self-Diagnosis and Healing

Complete chakra instruction. 9-hour audio tape series (6 tapes) with booklet. Sounds

True, 2000.

The Illuminated Chakras: A Visionary Voyage Into Your Inner World

Stunning visual meditation with 3-D animation and 5.1 surround sound. 28-minute DVD

or VHS. Sacred Centers, 2003.

Wheels of Life Guided Meditations

Guided mediation. 75-minute audio CD. Llewellyn, 1987.

Chakra Prayer Flags

Limited edition flag sets. 7 flags per set.

Publications, products, articles, and information about workshops can be found at:
Sacred Centers

WWW.SACREDCENTERS.COM ( 707) 823-8988